Spyro: Bridge Across Worlds
by tallonran
Summary: After the defeat of Malefore, Spyro and Cynder are thrown into a new adventure, meeting new and unlikely friends and enemies along the way. Spyro must wrestle with his unspoken feelings for Cynder and unravel the mystery behind a new dragon in the realm.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Nighttime

As Spyro and Cynder wheeled though the air, Spyro couldn't feel any happier. He had survived the near destruction of the world, he had defeated Malefor, removing a great evil and the source of all his troubles from the land, and he was with Cynder, the one dragon he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Spyro sighed as he looked at the black dragoness in front of him. That was the only thing about this moment that could possibly be better. As much as he loved her, she didn't know it, and he didn't know how she felt about him. The last thing he wanted to do was ruin the friendship he had with her. As he watched her soar in front of him he couldn't keep from admiring her. She really was beautiful.

"Hey Spyro, what's taking you so long" Cynder called from up in front of him.

"Huh… what… oh yeah I was just thinking" what he was thinking about there was no way he was going to tell her. "I wonder where we are. I can't seem to find any landmarks"

"Well we should stop for a while anyway, I'm tired, and it looks like there a good place to stop up ahead" Cynder pointed to what looked like a large cliff face overlooking a valley.

"Yeah I'm still wiped after that fight; I can barely keep my head up. I probably shouldn't have tried to fly so far today"

They landed on the cliff face in silence, too tired to talk anymore. Spyro looked around at the valley stretched out before him. He could hear the crash of a waterfall somewhere nearby and could see a river running along the base of the cliff and stretching out into the valley below. The valley was dotted with hills and low mesas, a lot like the valley of Avalar. Along one side of the valley there was a massive forest, stretching as far as he could see in the fading light, along the other side what looked like small villages dotted a large plain. But there was evidence of the large cataclysm that had almost destroyed the world. Large jagged scars were visible in the ground, some almost reaching a mile in length. The river had changed course, the old path visible as a dark stain running across the land, the new path sweeping across forest and plain alike. Leaving the river stained with mud and debris. Oh the piece paid for one dragon's malevolence.

When he turned around Cynder had already lay down under some nearby trees. "It looks like there are multiple villages nearby, we should be able to fly to one of them tomorrow and find out where we are, because it sure isn't anywhere I recognize."

"Hmm… that's nice" Cynder muttered half asleep, her mind already part of the way into her dreams.

"And after that were going to go resurrect Malefor and the destroyer…"

"Sounds good…"

"And you aren't paying attention to a word I say" Spyro chuckled as he lay down across the clearing from Cynder. Looking across the clearing he caught himself admiring her again. She was already sleeping peacefully, curled up in a ball with her head over her tail with her wing making a canopy over her. She was so beautiful, and he couldn't help his feelings for her. Maybe he would tell her tomorrow. With Malefor gone he wouldn't have much responsibility anymore. He wasn't the savior of the planet anymore, maybe settle down and live a normal life. Then again he had never lived a normal life: raised by dragonflies for half his life, then finding out that that he was a dragon destined to save the world and thrown into a wild lifestyle of training and fights. Yes he could live as normal a life as he could, and he wanted Cynder to be there with him every step of the way. As he drifted off to sleep as well he thought to himself about the life that he could have.

But he too had an unknown path set out before him; little did he know that while one adventure had ended, another had begun. This one being more life changing then the last, and while the last one had nearly ended one world, the next would have two hanging in the balance.

Finally it was all over, well at least until next year. Zach thought to himself as he climbed into bed. No more classes, no more teachers just a hundred and some days of summer vacation. He was a normal kid, well at least by his standards. Average height and a little bit overweight, he was about as plain as any human could be. Brown hair, brown eyes, it's as if his figure and features couldn't be any blander. Oh well he didn't care, he liked himself the way he was. But right before bed was not the time to think about those kinds of things. After having to wake up for school every day for the past hundred and eighty days the first thing he was going to do was sleep in, and he wanted to get a jump start on it.

As Zach lay down he let his mind drift. School was over now, but there was something he feared would stay with him. For the past few months he had been having these dreams, some more like nightmares, yet always the same people, but the dreams were never the same. It was like he was seeing the life of another person. But the weirdest thing about them was he wasn't seeing people. He was seeing dragons. Almost every night for the past month he watched as this dragon went through different trials and fights, but the strangest thing was is he could hear them. Every word every sentence he could hear, and even remember. He knew their names, their feelings, their personalities as well as he knew his own. It was like he was living a double life. One while he was awake, the other while he was asleep. But he never could interact with them, he was a silent spectator, watching events unfold before him but never affecting the outcome.

As he rolled over he couldn't help but drift into the thoughts that came to him every night. The thought that these dreams had happened before, over three years before to be exact. He thought back to that night long ago when he woke up crying in the middle of the night, not only because the characters that he had come to think of as family, as part of him, had killed people, but that they were going to die crushed by the mountain collapsing around them. After that night he had no more dreams, that was until a few nights ago. They had started again, with the same characters, and ever from the same point that his other dreams had left off. It didn't make sense, but the characters didn't seem to have any recollection of the time passed either, so he guessed they were as confused as he was. But that still didn't explain why he was having these dreams, and what they meant. Were they trying to tell him something or was it just his mind playing tricks on him?

But maybe not. As Zach shifted in bed again his thoughts drifted back to last night's dream. It put his characters, oh what were their names, why couldn't he remember he usually had no trouble remembering their names, they were like second nature to him. Ah, yes, Spyro and Cynder, it had them in the center off a large cavern, but the heart was stifling, even in his dream he could feel it, it must have been some volcano or somewhere deep in the earth. But they had not been alone, another large purple dragon, Malefor, the cause for all their troubles for the last three years, was there as well. There had been a large battle, with Spyro and Cynder almost getting killed multiple times, but the battle ender with Malefor defeated, but the world was still falling apart from his plan. His dream had ended with Cynder confessing her love for Spyro and Spyro doing something in the center of the room. His woke after Spyro released a bright flash of light form his body. He awoke drenched in sweat and crying again for the loss of his characters. He didn't know what this night would bring, would he have another dream or would he be left to wonder like those years ago?

As he mulled over these thoughts he tossed and turned in his bed. He didn't know if sleep would ever come to him, but he needed it. It had been a rough week at school with his lack of sleep form school and the finals he had to take. He just needed to wind down and take it easy for a week. Without any plans so far for the summer all he was going to do was sit around the house, sleep maybe read a good book. Yes he was going to have a nice easy, boring summer. Well that's what he thought at least. Little did he know as he drifted off to sleep that there was much more in store for him that staying at home that summer.

Fire swarmed around Zach as he flew through the air the heat was unbearable as he plummeted from an unknown height, he could smell the ozone burning up around him as his body became superheated, why wasn't he dead, he should have been dead long ago from the heat but he wasn't. As he cleared the ball of flames surrounding him he could see the scenery below him. The moonlight showed a massive ocean with various island dotting the landscape some covered in ice, others overgrown with jungle, and even weirder some appeared to be… floating… But the most prominent feature was the large island in the center with a large volcano dominating the center and almost every conceivable land mass and terrain covering the rest. From swampland to towering mountains, huge rivers to massive forests, it was all on the island, the island he appeared to be heading towards.

"Ok I have to be dreaming," he thought to himself "there is no way I could be falling from the sky. And this doesn't even look like earth anyway, at least nowhere I know"

As he fell through the night sky he couldn't help but find joy in the feeling of flight, well free falling anyway. The wind over his body, the sights, the rush of adrenaline, but most importantly the freedom. The ability to go anywhere, to do anything, to not be restrained, it was the greatest feeling in the world.

But then again maybe it wasn't a good thing, because now he was hurtling toward the ground at hundreds of miles an hour. "Ok this has got to be a dream, how did I even end up so high anyway, yeah… it's just a dream". The ground continuing to come closer and closer didn't help any, towns and villages becoming visible and more defined, their fires making small dots of light across the landscape "I just need to wake myself up" Zach tried to force himself awake like he could from his normal dreams, but nothing seemed to work. He even went so far as the slap himself across the face. Meanwhile he still sped towards the ground, the tops of trees becoming distinguished from each other and the moonlight making the surf visible along the coast as well as the rapids in a river. "Ok this is some real nightmare I'm having; I hope to god this is only a dream." As Zach fell within hundreds of feet from the ground Zach could tell he was going to crash into a forest that had been bordering the river. "Oh crap this is going to hurt"

Spyro awoke with a start. Something wasn't right, he could feel it. He sat in silence for a full five minutes listing to the night sounds. He could hear a bird somewhere in the surrounding woods as well as various nightlife, but the roar of the nearby waterfall dominated everything. In their haste they hadn't chosen a very good spot to bed down, but everything seemed to be in order. He looked across the clearing to where Cynder was sleeping. She hadn't woke; maybe it was just his imagination running wild. After spending the last few years of his life in constant danger, maybe he was overreacting a bit. He got up and walked around the clearing, making a round close to the edge of the woods; everything seemed to be in order, on his way back to his temporary bed he stopped by Cynder. She had shifted positions during the night stretching out along the grass her head now lying flat in the grass. He couldn't stop starring at her. It was probably a good thing that she was asleep or this would be a hard thing to explain. She was so beautiful, with her head out in the moonlight. He thought back to when he first met her, Cynder the terror of the skies, caught in Malefor's corruptive powers. She was his worst enemy then but now she was his best friend and he was glad for it. He had forgiven her for all the things that she had done but he didn't think that she had forgiven herself. No one blamed her for what she had done, but she still held back, still tormented by her evil deeds.

Spyro was filled with rage over the things Malefor had put her through, his blood boiling and rushing though his veins, at least he had made him pay, but it seemed like such a small price for all the things he had done. But that didn't matter anymore, Malefor was gone and he had long ago forgiven Cynder. He truly loved her but he could never find a way to tell her how, he always stumbled when he went to tell her how he felt and most of the time he had been running around trying to save the world. He moved toward Cynder going to wake her up and tell her how he really felt, but thought better of it. She needed the sleep more than he did.

Spyro crossed the clearing back to where he had bedded down for the night and tried to go back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. Spyro lay on his back looking at the stars in the night sky thinking about the last few years of this life, about all that he had been put through, but mostly he thought of Ignitus. Ignitus was the first dragon he had ever met, he was the one who had shown who he was, trained him, and taught him how to fly. He was the closest thing he had to a father, well a dragon father anyway. He had always been there for him, giving him counsel and hope when he needed it, but now he was gone. It was all his fault, if he hadn't brought back Malefor, if he had stopped the destroyer sooner, if… Spyro broke down into tears at lay there crying until he could cry no more.

"Spyro are you ok?" Cynder had walked up behind him.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said trying to hide his face.

"You miss Ignitus don't you?" It wasn't really a question. "I do too Spyro, you have to remember that it wasn't your fault. Ignitus did that for you because he wanted to, not because he had to. How are you remembering him if you reject the last thing he did for you?"

"But there had to be another way, he could have…"

"But he didn't Spyro, I know this is hard for you but you can't change the past. Everyone has to pass on eventually." Cynder walked over and lay down beside him. "And you know he'll always be there when you need him, you've seen it yourself"

"I just can't help it Cynder, I just feel like I could have done something to stop it"

"You know you did everything you could have, and you need your sleep. Good night Spyro."

Spyro felt the heart coming through Cynder's scales radiate into his body. Just being near her put his mind at ease and calmed him down "Goodnight Cynder"

As Spyro dosed off again he looked at the sky, and the shooting star that was streaking across it.

Spyro woke again with a start. He sat motionless, listening to the silence around him. Again there was nothing. This had to stop; he was always on edge, always expecting something to go wrong. He looked over at Cynder sleeping next to him. She was still asleep. If he didn't stop this paranoia, he would never sleep a whole night again. He just needed to calm down.

A shuffling in the bushes behind him made Spyro jump up into a ready position, his head swiveling around, ready for anything, yet nothing happened. His ears were greeted with only silence as he stood and listened to the world around him

Spyro let out a sigh of relief and frustration, his heart was pounding in his head and his adrenaline level had spiked, he was on full alert. And for what? Something he thought he had heard.

After he had made his round he laid back down next to Cynder, he was comfortable now, at least for a while, and he hadn't woke Cynder again so that was a good thing. Maybe he could finally get some sleep

*Snap*

Spyro stood up again, looking around for the source of the sound. His attention was immediately brought back to the bushes where he thought he had heard something earlier. Taking a cautious step forward, Spyro began to approach the vegetation.

But he wasn't prepared for what came out of the bushes. As soon as he turned to the tree, an ape, club in hand, leapt out of the bushes. Spyro tried to react, but wasn't fast enough and was tackled by the ape and was sent rolling across the clearing. When they had finally stopped rolling, the ape hefted his club and poised to bring it down on Spyro's head. Spyro however, had other plans, and used his hind feet to kick the ape off and into a tree, breaking his neck.

Cynder, hearing all the commotion, had stirred from her slumber. "Spyro what's going on, is that an ape, are you ok…"

But her next question was cut short as more apes leapt from the bushes, one of them knocking her out on the way by with a blow to the head.

"Don't you lay a hand on her," Spyro yelled, enraged at their actions, "don't think I won't kill you."

One ape, obviously the leader from his complete armor and well-polished sword as stepped out to address him. "Oh we wouldn't dare do that, but you, your more trouble than your worth no matter what our master says, I guess will just kill you now and get it over with."

"I'll burn you to a crisp first!"

"Oh really, then why don't you give it a try, were all waiting, and I promise, I'll stand still"

It was never a good thing when the person you're fighting challenges you to attack them like that, because it usually means it won't work. Spyro knew he was too drained to even try a fireball but he had to make the attempt; there was no way he was going to let these apes go. Spyro dug deep and opened his mouth, expecting a fireball, but all that came out was hot air, this was not looking good.

"Hah I knew it, you're too drained to even make a spark, let finish this."

The remaining apes, about seven of them in total, created a semi-circle around him, alternating sword and spear, cutting him off from Cynder and pushing him against the edge of the cliff. Spyro tried to charge one of them, but when he did, the apes around him would come to his aid, jabbing at Spyro with his weapons, forcing him to back off. To make matters worse, every time Spyro backed up, he lost ground, with the semi-circle of apes closing in and pushing him closed to the edge.

Spyro tried to fly around the wall of men, but he could barely lift his wings off the ground. He had reached the edge of the cliff and stopped when one of his feet slipped over the edge, knocking gravel into the river below.

"This is not good, I'm going to have to break their line somewhere or I'm toast. Maybe if I can take out their leader, they will break and run. It's a long shot but it might work"

Spyro gathered the strength he had left and blindly charged towards the leader in the center of their circle. However, the ape knew it was coming and simply sidestepped Spyro's wild dash and caught him in the head with the flat of his blade on the way by. Knocking Spyro to the ground.

Spyro could hear the apes talking as the edges of his vision began to close in.

One of the apes "can't we just run him through? He'd be dead and we wouldn't have to worry about him anymore."

Another "no we can't leave any evidence as to where he died, it might lead someone to our lair, just throw him off the cliff, he'll drown in the river and it will carry his body far enough away that people won't know where to start looking."

Spyro fought for consciousness as he felt his body being picked up and dragged by the apes. As he was flung over the side, the edges of his vision continued to close in as he plummeted in to the darkness of night and the river below.

Zach stirred from his slumber but kept his eyes closed, it was his day to sleep in and he was still very tired. But apparently someone had come into his room and left the door open, because he could see the light coming through his eyelids. He rolled out of bed and promptly fell onto the floor. He must have fallen asleep on something because his limbs didn't seem to work. He tried to get up but his legs were still asleep and couldn't support his weight. Zach rubbed his eyes to try and get them to focus, when he moved them out of the way his breath caught at what he saw. He was not in his bedroom anymore, but a small crater… surrounded by trees… in the middle of the forest.

"What in the world… where am I, and how did I get here?"

Zach tried to push himself up again but fell back down again. "Dang legs are still asleep; I'll have to get the circulation back into them. Zach turned to move his legs into a better position but stopped cold. His legs weren't there anymore; instead there were two long scaly hind legs.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Zach scrambled backwards fast as his arms would carry him, but the scaly appendages followed him. It was then that Zach took the time took look at his arms, and he was shocked when he saw his arms too were covered in scales, and ended not with hands, but with three fingered talons. Zach lay down in the dirt and covered his face with his hands. This has to be some dream. Some horrible nightmare, but when he looked again, the scales and talons were still there. It was then that Zach noticed that his back was stinging, probably from dragging it along the ground in his panic. But the pain was too far away from his body, not in a normal position he could place.

"Do I dare look behind me to see what's there?"

Zach had to know what was going on, and the pain had become a nuisance now, so he rolled onto his stomach and craned his neck behind him. And there, siting in plain sight and frightfully attached to his back was a pair of leathery wings.

"Ok this would be really cool if I wasn't scared out of my mind right now. Scales, talons, different sized appendages, WINGS… this is all too much if I didn't know better I'd say I was a…"

Zach stopped short, he had to find something reflective, he had to see his face NOW. Zach half walked half crawled, he didn't quite have the four legged walking thing down, to stream he heard running nearby. The stream was clear and slow, making the perfect reflective surface. Zach slowly walked up to the water, and nearly passed out at what he saw. For it was not a human face that stared back at him in the reflection, but one of a dragon. It was a dragon with pure white scales covering his entire face, a squareish jawline with what he supposed was a snout, if you could even call it that and a high forehead, it was a very strange sight. But there were two features that stood out above the rest. One of which being horns that started just above his nose and between his eyes, starting as one but splicing and ruining along the top of his eyebrows, then curving back along his head until they separated from his skull and swept back along his head. The other of the two features being his deep blue eyes. This was noticeable by its self but was made stranger by the fact that he normally had brown eyes. This was too weird, but then again, nothing was normal right now.

He gave himself another look over. The rest of the scales along his body where a white that matched the scales along his face, except for the scales along his chest and stomach. These scales were the same deep blue of his eyes. He also noted that he had a tail, how he had missed this earlier he wasn't quite sure, but it was there now. It too was white like the rest of his body and it ended in a V shaped spike that curved slightly inward, similar to the horns on his forehead. He stood at a good height, and from what he could tell, seemed fit and muscular, but then again, he knew nothing about what a dragon was like, except from what he remembered from his dreams.

Zach looked around again at the river and the surrounding forest, could he be on the island from his dream, or was it a dream, maybe it was real, that would explain the crater he woke up in. Either way, this was too weird for him. He was lost, confused, in a different body, he was definitely not going to get that quiet summer he wanted. Hopefully this was just a bad dream, but something told him that he was in for a long journey. A small smile came to him as he remembered something, he couldn't believe he was going to say it but he couldn't resist the temptation.

"I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore… heck I don't think I'm human anymore"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: We're off to see the… um… where are we going again?

"So where am I?" Zach posed the question to the empty air.

Zach had spent the last few hours by the river, getting used to his new form. While he had easily gotten used to walking and running, his tail was a constant problem. Bumping into things, occasionally dragging on the ground, and always seeming to get in the way, it was a real hassle. But then again, it was really cool, who else was going to be able to say that they had a tail? Then again he could only tell people that if he ever made it home, if that was even possible. Even cooler than his tail, were his wings. They were huge, almost a large as his body, they looked big enough that he might actually be able to fly. That would be the greatest thing. Ever since he was a kid, Zach had been fascinated with flight, and having wings meant that he could have the freedom of flight. That is he could ever figure it out. He had quickly learned how to spread them out and tuck them close to his body, flapping up and down had soon followed, but his first attempt at flight ended up with him upside down in the river to say the least.

Now Zach was laying by the side of the river, trying to cool of in the shade of a nearby tree. After running around so awkwardly he was tired and in pain from the various bruises coving his body. But even lying down posed a different set of problems. His wings and the spikes running down his back made it nearly impossible to lie on his back, and forced him to contort his body into various strange positions. He was currently lying on his side with one wing splayed out along the ground, and another tucked against his body.

"Dang its hot here, maybe I should jump back in the river, the current wasn't too strong and it was pretty shallow, I think I go sit in it without drowning myself"

Zach walked over to the edge of the water and waded out from the edge, the cool water felt cool against his scales (weird, he had scales now) and he sat in it up to this neck.

"A dragon? This far north? What is it doing up here? And so soon after the disaster?"

Zach's head snapped back towards shore and the source of the voice, but there was no one to be seen. Just some wildlife and some vegetation. No humans, no other dragons, no nothing.

"Maybe I'm just starting to hear things," Zach thought to himself as he cautiously looked at the shoreline again. It wouldn't be the strangest thing that happened today."

"Wow! It is a real dragon" then louder "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing so far north?"

Zach frantically searched the shoreline for the source of the sound but couldn't locate the source. There was nothing, not a speck. Zach called out "show yourself…where are you?"

"Um… I'm right in front of you silly"

Now Zach was beyond frantic, his head snapped side to side as he searched for the source of the sound. Either he was going crazy, or the person he was talking to was invisible, either way he wouldn't put it past this world, things were already crazy enough. As he was searching a rather large dragonfly kept flying in front of his field of vision. Zach raised up a claw to swat it away but stopped short when it started to address him.

"Hey you, yeah you, I'm talking to you."

Zach was dumbstruck, "uh… hi?"

"Who are you, and what are you doing this far north?"

"Uh… I'm Zach and I really don't know how I got here, I don't really know where here is either." Zach kept a confused tone as he talked to the dragonfly in front of him this was too weird.

"Hi Zach nice to meet you, my names Ray"

"Hi Ray you mind telling me where I am, and… uh… How to get home?" Zach really didn't know where home was, but if by chance this dragonfly could take him somewhere where the was someone who knew WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON, maybe he could get some answers, but there were a lot of ifs in that.

"Well what your standing next to right now is what's left of the Silver River, though those trees over there is my village, and…" Zach trailed off into thought as the dragonfly went though a list of all the locations, good food spots, various hangouts, and other dangerous areas. Ray obviously didn't quite know what he was doing. Zach drifted off into thought as Ray continued his rant.

"This is too weird, I'm siting here as a dragon, talking to a dragonfly, in the middle of a forest, in a place that I didn't know existed. But then again, nothing I've done here so far has been normal, so I best get used to it. But still, where am I? I mean what world what planet, what time, cause this sure isn't Earth. I best go with the flow right now, this dragonfly, no matter how strange, can lead me to civilization, if it exists, and he thinks I'm normal to boot, lets keep it that way. There's one thing that bothers me though, everything here, dragons, talking dragonflies, the weird landscape, looks a lot like my dreams, does that mean I'm in my dreams? And if that's true were they even dreams at all? I really need to get some answers, and this rambling dragonfly seems to be my best and only option at the moment so I guess ill go with him. And if this is the place from my dreams, ill have some places he could take me too, like Warfang or the temple. And if I'm wrong, its not like it will hurt, it will just prove to both of us that I'm crazy." Zach came out of dreamland as the dragonfly finished his tirade.

"So I'm assuming you want to go to the dragon temple?"

Bingo

"Yeah that's right, can you take me there, or at least get me started, I'm still kinda lost."

"Sure, but I have to check in with my parents first, and I can only take you as far as the cliffs of misery, no dragonfly ever goes past there. And I though dragons were supposed to be good navigators"

As the dragonfly led Zach into the forest and towards his village, Zach couldn't help but groan. "Oh great, the cliffs of misery, that sounds very inviting, I can only WONDER why they got that name, wait, on second thought, I probably don't want to know"

Spyro woke up to familiar surroundings, a soft bed, curved stone walls and floor and the open sky above him, he was back in the temple, but what happened, and how did he get here? The last thing he remembered was…

"Cynder!"

"Calm down Spyro its ok, you're safe here"

Spyro turned to see Terador, the earth guardian, standing in the doorway. Next to Ignitus; he was the closest to Spyro, and perhaps the most normal of the other guardians.

"We pulled you out of the river this morning, don't worry you stopped the great cleansing, the world is safe now, thanks to you. You've probably been out for a day and a half now, it must have really taken it out of you, and your trip down the river didn't help either, were lucky we spotted you."

"No Terador you don't understand, last night, the apes, Cynder!"

"Slow down Spyro what are you talking about. Now take a deep breath and tell us what happened."

"Last night, Cynder and I stopped to rest, but in the middle of the night, they attacked us, the knocked me out and threw me into the river, leaving me for dead, but… I think they took Cynder… I have to go save her, I…"

"Whoa, Spyro slow down you're in no condition to go anywhere"

As Spyro tried to get up he felt that his whole right wing had been bandaged, and his front left leg was as well.

"Your wing was broken in three places and you leg was broken in two, you can barely walk much less fight. You're going to stay here until you get better, even if I have to pin you there myself, now get some rest, dragons are quick healers, but you'll need your rest."

"But Terador, Cynder needs me, I have to go help her!"

"Relax Spyro, the other guardians and I will take care of that you just need rest." Terador became more firm with Spyro.

"Fine, I'll get some rest. But you find Cynder for me Terador, promise me you will"

"I Promise Spyro, we wont stop till we've found her… Sleep well Spyro" with that Terador turned and left the room, leaving Spyro by himself.

Spyro tried to sleep, but lay awake, thinking about Cynder and what was happening to her. Spyro eventually succumbed to sleep due to sheer exhaustion, but even in his dreams, he tossed and turned, thinking of Cynder.

"So go over this with me again. Were going to go through this massive, overgrown forest, to get to the cliffs of despair?"

"Yeah that's, right"

"Yeah it still sounds just as crazy when you say it."

Zach continued to follow Ray further away from the village they had just left, if you could even call it a village. It was more a collection of trees and houses along a clearing in the forest. Once they had arrived there, Ray had immediately taken him to his house, which was actually a tree at the other end of the village. Unfortunately, this also meant that they had to walk down the center of the village, in plain sight of everyone. And boy was that a mistake, he had thought Ray was hyperactive, but he was nothing compared to others in the village. The second he had walked into view, the village became a maelstrom of activity, with Zach at the center. Zach had only escaped the hyperactive villagers when one of them, obviously one in charge had told everyone to leave him alone. It was quite comical actually, he was huge compared to them, at least ten times their size, probably more, and he was the one that was getting attacked. He kind of felt like Godzilla. So it turned out that the dragonfly that had broke up the mob, was Ray's father and he was of high standing in the village (figures), and after much debate, Ray was eventually allowed to take him as far as the cliffs of despair. Which brought them to their current position in the forest.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but why do they do they call them the cliffs of despair?"

Ray talked to him as hey kept following the path in front of him.

"A few days ago, a bunch of dragonflies flew off over the cliffs, to make a new village, they were never heard from since, and anyone who has gone to look for them have suffered the same fate. Not to mention the strange noises that are always coming from the cliffs."

"Yeah, I really shouldn't have asked… how long till we get there anyway."

Zach and Ray came out from the undergrowth into a clearing flanked on one side by the river, on the other side; more forest loomed before them. Ray turned and addressed Zach "it's just on the other side of that line of trees"

"Good cause I'm going to need a rest, I don't know a bout you but I'm tired"

"How are you tired, we haven't been moving for more than an hour."

"Well I can't fly above all the bushes, trees, tall grass, swamps, and other hellish terrain you walked me though now can I?"

"Well you can fly yah know, you're the one that insisted we walked."

"I already told you, I'm worn out and cant fly, walking is taxing as it is. There was no way I was going to fly that far, besides, ill need all my energy for the next leg of my trip."

"Whatever you say."

They had crossed the clearing again and had entered the forest on the other side.

"Its just though here, ah, here's the trail."

Zach followed along the "trail" that Ray had found, which consisted of patches of dirt crawling along, and most of the time through, bushes and undergrowth.

"This is the last time I follow your directions, Ray. I don't think you could have driven me though any more obstacles. Why couldn't we have followed the river anyway?" We could have followed it to the clearing back there, and I'm sure the forest would have been less dense near the edges."

"Yes it would have, but the silver river backtracks a little ways from the point that I found you, the trail is four times as long as the path we took."

"Well you got me there, but your path sure wasn't easy."

"Yeah well I got you to the clifs didn't I"

"Not yet you haven't"

"Oh really? Than what's that"

The forest ended abruptly as Zach and Ray walked out onto a sandstone cliff face. The top of the cliff was dotted with a few shrubs and bushes, but was other wise barren. This face extended about a hundred yards from the edge of the forest until it stopped abruptly. Mist and dark storm clouds obscured whatever was on the other side.

"Wow! That's some cliff."

"Yes it is, and this is as far as I take you, you should be able to find your way home from here right, remember the silver river is just below."

Zach really didn't have any idea where he was going, but the fewer questions asked the better. "Yeah I can find my way from here, thanks for the help."

"Good luck getting home, you may need it." Ray looked like he was going to say something else, but decided against it, instead he turned and returned to the forest.

"Thanks… I think." Zach walked to the edge of the cliff and looked over "wow that is a long way down." What Zach meant by that statement was it was such a long way down that he couldn't see the bottom, at all, period. "How in the world am I supposed to get down there?" Zach looked along the sides of the ridge, hoping to see an incline or something he could use to get to the base of the cliff, but found nothing. He could walk the edge and hope it sloped down at some point, but that would mean he would have to leave the river, his only landmark, and there was no way he was going to do that.

"Its not like I can just jump and get to the bottom…" Zach just about slapped himself in the face. Yes he couldn't jump to the bottom, but he could do something much better, fly. Well maybe he still couldn't fly, but he could at least keep his wings spread, and that meant he could glide.

Zach tensed as he looked over the edge and prepared to jump. He spread his wings and… wait a minute, if he was wrong, and he couldn't glide, that would be along fall for him to thing about how stupid he was before he died. Maybe he should practice first. Zach looked around again and spotted a part of the cliff about twenty feet taller, he could try jumping off that and gliding to his current spot, he would never go over the cliff, he could practice gliding, and if he was wrong the fall wouldn't kill him… probably.

Zach climbed to the top of the small ridge. Twenty feet sure looked higher wen you were standing on top of it. Maybe he could wait here until some one came along, yeah right… and maybe he was just dreaming, and maybe a magical fairy would come from the sky and grant him three wishes. If he wanted answers, he was going to have to go and find them, and that was going to mean taking risks, this was just the first step.

Zach stood on the edge of the ridge and spread his wings, he was going to have to jump, preferably out so he could get some forward momentum, which might just keep him aloft. And what do you know, if he was wrong, he would fall on some nice, soft, pointy rocks. This was just great.

"well here goes nothing."

Zach jumped, and fell like a rock. That is until his wings caught the air below him. "Wow I'm actually flying, well close enough to flying anyway, this is really cool… wow how many times have I said that today?" It was then that Zach realized that while gliding was fairly easy, and he could easily control the flight, he really didn't know how he was going to land. Should be easy enough right, just keep running when you hit the ground

While this sounded like a sound plan, putting it into action was completely different. Zach's attempt at landing ended up with him landing on his face, as he couldn't run fast enough to keep up with the momentum from his flight.

"Ughh… ok the land could have used some work, but that was close enough." Zach said as he spit the rest of the rocks and sand out of his mouth.

Zach heard laughter coming from the forest. "That was a might fine flight there young dragon."

Zach turned to see an ape brandishing a sword staring at him intently while laughing. How this combination of actions was possible, Zach wasn't exactly sure, and it was a little unsettling that this ape was doing it. "I see that you're far from home, and very tired, why don't you take a rest. I'm sure my master will allow you to stay at his home."

It was an ape asking him to do this, if he learned anything from his dreams, it was that apes were bad, always. And Zach really didn't want to know whom the "master" was that the ape had mentioned, but it just sounded bad.

"I think I'll pass, got to get home you know, everyone's waiting." Zach was trying to end the conversation. He really didn't want to talk to the ape, and he really, really, didn't want to get in a fight, because there was no way he could win. "So I'll be off then."

"Oh I don't think so." The ape took a step towards Zach raising his sword. "You're either coming with me, or going in pieces."

"Was that a threat? Yeah, I think its time that I try the big hill." Zach took some steps towards the edge of the cliff. "Bye bye crazy ape"

The ape yelled at Zach, and charged him with every intent of running him through. Unfortunately for the ape, he was still a hundred yards away, plenty of time for Zach to get out of the way.

"Yeah your not very bright now are you, well time to go then" and with that Zach threw himself off the edge of the cliff.

As Zach flew from the cliff, he kept his wings close to his body. Best to get a good distance away from that ape before he opened his wings, the less that ape knew the better. After a while, Zach opened his wings. Unfortunately for him he was moving at a great speed when he did this, so when his wings caught the air it sent a shock though his body. Zach almost blacked out as all the blood was pressed from his head. He would not pass out, not now. As the blood returned to its normal flow, Zach shook the stars out of his vision. His wings and shoulder blades now hurt from the shock as well. He would have to remember to never do that again.

As Zach looked back up at the top of the cliff, it was a great distance away now, Zach could barely make out the shape of the ape at the edge of the cliff, and he couldn't hear what he was yelling. "Well no hope of going back that way now." Zach looked down, he still couldn't see the ground through the mist. "This sure is one big cliff, I wonder how other people get up and down it, if people even go this way at all." As Zach slowly glided down the mountain he had plenty of time to think about all that had happened that day. "Well this is great, now I know that someone or something is out to kill me, maybe not me in particular, but I'm still in the line of fire. I really have to get some answers. Well maybe I already have some of them." Zach thought about all the dreams that he had been having, everything seemed to add up, the dragons, the angry apes, the talking dragonflies, it seemed more and more like he had been thrown into his dreams. But that couldn't be, maybe this world was like his dreams, but it couldn't be the same world, could it? A lot of the things seemed to point to that conclusion.

But he had bigger problems right now. The storm that had just been on the horizon a few minutes ago was now barreling in on him. he needed to find shelter and fast. Finally after many minutes of gliding, Zach saw the ground. He had ended up near the bottom of the waterfall and could see the falls as well as the basin that they were falling into. Zach decided against trying to land at this speed, instead he flew over a small outlet of the river. Once he was over the river he drew in his wings and fell into the cool water, which saved his face from another case of road rash. After he had paddled his way to shore, Zach looked at his surroundings for a place he could take shelter from the coming storm.

"The forest won't really offer ant protection, and I can't stay out here in the open, I wonder if there are any caves in the cliff face?" Zach scanned the cliff face hoping to find a cave or an outcropping of some kind but had no luck. The only thing he could see was what looked like a small path up a smother part of the cliff, although he couldn't tell where it went.

"well I can stay out here and get battered by the storm, or I can follow that path and see where it leads. As much has I'd like to get fried by lightning I think I'll follow the path." A clap of thunder seemed to reassure Zach that it was clearly the best option. As Zach climbed the trail the storm got ever closer, the winds picking up, and rain beginning to fall. Zach, slipping and crawling up the rock path, was prompted to move even faster.

The path took Zach around many twists and turns but eventually put him out behind the waterfall.

Zach entered a cave from one side, out the mouth of the cave he could see the water from the falls, an effective cover for the cave. If he hadn't found the trail he did he wouldn't have known that the cave was here. As Zach looked around the cave he noticed other entrances, or exits, that looked like they could go to other parts of the cliff, or even deeper into it. Should he stay here, or should he try to find a cave deeper into the Cliff for more safety, As Zach pondered these thoughts her heard voices coming from one of the passages. But he couldn't tell what passage they were coming from. The cave walls made the sounds echo and multiply, making it impossible to tell which direction they were coming from. Well maybe these people were friendly, there was a good chance of that, right? Any hope of that disappeared when he heard a screech come though the cavern, it was clearly ape.

Zach moved to the far wall close to the waterfall, if he had to, he would run, better chance of living outside in a storm than in a room with an angry ape that wants to kill you. Well maybe he could fight one off; he would have the element of surprise. That idea went down the toilet when at least ten apes walked into the room from the passage directly in front of him. they had their backs turned to him as they entered so not one of them spotted him. Much to Zach's surprise one of them was the one that had talked to him at the top of the cliff. How had he gotten down here so fast?

Zach could faintly hear their conversation over the roar of the waterfall.

"A white one you say?… This far north?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't get him, he jumped after I started talking to him."

"You better tell the boss, he's going to want to know about this"

"Are you crazy? He'll kill me, he hates bad news, if you want to tell him tell him yourself."

"Hey! You screwed up so you tell him, and you might live though it. But if he finds out from someone else, he will kill you for sure."

"Yeah I guess your right"

"Hey, when you die… can I have your sword?"

"Shut up!"

"They're talking about me!" Zach hadn't meant to, but he had said that out loud and was scared stiff when all heads turned his direction and looked right at him.

One of the apes drew his sword and walked right at him, and as hard as Zach tried he was too scared to move.

In his thoughts "This is it, I'm going to die, right here. This was some adventure, more like a cruel joke." Zach closed his eyes as he waited for the feeling of cold steel.

But it never came.

Zach opened one eye, then the other. The ape still stood before him but was looking side to side as if searching for something.

"what can he not see me or something. That is one blind ape"

A wave of relief rushed through Zach as the ape turned and walked back to the group, the group then walked into the largest center tunnel and disappeared deeper into the mountain. Zach let out the breath he was holding, but lost it again when he looked at the floor. His feet were gone, and his tail, and his wings, and the rest of his body.

"Oh god, WHAT, am I a disembodied spirit or something?" It wouldn't be the first time this had happened to him, and all in one day even. This was just great." But as Zach recovered from his tirade, he noticed that his vision began to blur. But it wasn't his vision it was parts of his vision, as Zach calmed down, the blur sharpened and became limbs, his limbs, attached to his now visible body.

"ok that's weird, and cool, and that's about the seventh time I've said that today, but this one takes the cake. Maybe I can do that again" Zach sat down and focused on his arm. He tried to force it to disappear first, like you would flex a muscle, but that didn't work. He tried relaxing too but that didn't seem to work either. But as Zach tried to make his arm disappear again, he had this understanding, this instinct, as to what was going on. It wasn't his arm that was diapering, it was his eyes that couldn't see it, it wasn't that his arm disappeared or was translucent, it was that the light was bending around his arm. He didn't know how or where or why these thoughts were coming form, but he knew they were true. Now he tried to bend the light around his arm, and not surprisingly, his arm ceased to exist. He then tried it on his entire body, and there was no more Zach, not that anyone could see him anyway. But as he experimented with making things disappear, he started to understand something bigger was happening, much like how he understood that he was bending light, he understood that he didn't merely have the ability to bend light around his body, but that there was something more, that he had control over light. It didn't really surprise him, Spyro and Cynder had powers just like that, so why not him? It made sense, he was white, the power matched to color.

So now that that mystery was "solved" he could return to the problem at hand, surviving. He needed to get deeper into the mountain to shelter from the storm, and he knew the only way to get deeper was to follow the apes.

"This is a bad idea, why am I doing this, well at least if I run into trouble I can hide, in plain sight, hah." As Zach traveled deeper into the cave, he really wondered why he was doing this, it was suicidal. But little did he know that he was being drawn by a larger force, and that entering the cave would set things in motion that would change the course of history.

Cynder awoke to a hard stone floor and a musky smell, just like always, but it shouldn't have been like this. She had escaped from the clutches of darkness, she should be with Spyro, what happened? As she came to, she took a look at her surroundings. She was in the center of a circular room made of stone, the walls were stone, the floors, windows, ect… there was one window a few feet off the ground, the window had no covering or bars of any kind, making an easy escape if one was needed. Just where was she anyway?

"Ah so I see you have woken Cynder, I was wondering when you would come to."

Cynder turned to see a tall, and not very pleasant smelling, ape standing in the doorway.

"It's always apes. What do you want, because I want nothing to do with you." Cynder sighed and spat at the ape's feet.

"Oh Cynder its not what I want, its what we both want. I'm here to offer you a place back in the darkness."

"Well tough luck for you, I'm never going back, I won't relive my past."

"I'm sorry you see it that way Cynder, I guess my master will have to talk some sense into you."

"And who's that, the dark master, sorry to break it to you but he wont be coming back any time soon, ever actually, now if your excuse me I have to go…" Cynder made a break for the window but was caught when something restraining her caught her and slammed her to the ground.

"Ha. Do you really think that we would leave you unrestrained, tough luck for you Cynder but your going to be here for a long time, that is until my master gets though with you"

Cynder was dazed, she hadn't noticed anything restraining her when she woke up what could possibly, oh no… Cynder looked down and her worst fears were confirmed. Around her neck, once again, was a green snake, tethering her to a gem in the center of the room. This was not going well.

"Oh and sorry about that restraint, but if what you say is true, you'll be wearing it for a long long time, as it was made by Malefore, so only Malefore may remove it. Have a nice night Cynder"

Cynder lay back down in the center of the room, defeated, she was stuck in one of these things again, and this time it wasn't to Spyro, but to a cold, unforgiving floor.

Cynder heard footsteps running down the hall outside up to someone outside her room, she could probably listen in on their conversation.

"Sir"

"Yes what is it" it was the ape from inside her cell

"Well... um you see…"

"Spit it out before you join your friends in the well of souls"

"Today on patrol, I uh… encountered a dragon."

Cynder perked up, could it have been Spyro, was he looking for her?

"What? A dragon, well what happened"

"He um… got away…"

"WHAT! You know what the consequences are!"

"Well yes, but I figured you would want to know what he looked like"

"It better not have been that purple dragon, I thought I told you to get rid of him"

"No it wasn't we threw him off the cliff, there's no way he should have survived."

No! Spyro. It couldn't be. He had to be alive, he had to be.

"Yes when we checked the river this morning there was no sign of him, there's no way he could have survived."

Cynder broke down into tears, if Spyro was gone, no one would ever know what happened to her, she was lost, and her best friend was now dead. As she lay there sobbing, she heard bits of the conversation outside, something about a white dragon, there was no way it could be Spyro.

"I was hoping you could tell the master about this yourself, you know he won't kill you."

"oh don't worry, I'll tell him myself" Cynder heard the sound of a sword sliding from a sheath, then a grunt and the messenger outside gag. "Because you wont be around to tell him" Cynder head a large thud outside the door. "Guard, take care of this mess please, we don't want our prisoner having to smell this all day do we?"

"No sir, it will be done right away."

"Good"

Cynder broke into tears again, she was lost, captured, and alone, and with no one to save her. "Oh Spyro, what happened to you?"

Zach moved behind the next rock in his path. He had walked though passage way after passage, running into two patrols along the way, which had hid from. Eventually coming out in a huge cavern housing a stone, castle like structure with an open courtyard. He was now moving along the outskirts of the courtyard, moving from cover to cover trying to get closer to the caste. Why he was doing this he wasn't quite sure, but he thought he might be able to figure out a little of what was going on. While he could bend the light around his body, it was tiring, and he didn't want to take any chances. He was currently moving towards an open window at ground level; it was large enough that he could easily crawl through and was seemingly unguarded. As he got closer he got impatient and decided that he would just make a brake for the window, there were no apes in sight after all. Zach easily made it to the window, and was half surprised that nothing bad had happened. Perhaps things were starting to go well for him? Zach took a quick look inside, it was dark in the room, but from what he could tell there was nothing in it, a storage room perhaps? After making sure that no one was coming Zach slipped quietly though the window into the room. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness Zach's heart skipped a few beats and just about stopped, he had no idea how he had missed the black sobbing wreck in the center of the room

Ok. That makes it official

"Cynder?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Well this is awkward…

"Cynder is that you?"

Cynder's head shot up as she stared blindly into the darkness "Spyro?"

"Eh…. Not exactly"

Cynder tensed up as she stood on her feet. "Who are you? Show yourself, if you're here to talk to me, I don't want to hear it, there's no way I'm ever going back."

"What are you talking about?"

The guard outside stormed into the room. "Quiet in here wench, I'm trying to sleep here, and you don't want to disrupt my sleep."

Cynder just kept quiet in the corner of the room. She stayed silent until the guard had walked back outside and fell asleep "who are you, and why can't I see you, show yourself before I start swinging."

Zach realized that he was still bending the light around his body. While he could see Cynder, from her perspective, she was talking to thin air. "Oh, yeah, right, you can't see me can you?" Zach released the flow of energy he was maintaining to keep himself shielded. It was costing him a lot of energy, he might not be able to do it again if he tried, he would need to be more careful with how often he used it.

Cynder was shocked when another dragon suddenly materialized in front of her. This time she kept her voice low to keep from waking the guard. "What? How did you do that? Who are you?" She had never seen this dragon before, even in all her travels and time spent at the temple. But the strangest thing was that the dragon standing before her seemed to be her age, and that wasn't possible. She and Spyro were the only two dragons to survive from their group, and she didn't know of any eggs hatched after that. But the dragon standing before shook her beliefs. Things just got really weird, well weirder than things already were, if that was even possible. But she also had to be wary of him, who knew where he was from or why he was here. She wouldn't fall for a trap that easily. Not again.

"Names Zach. But as to why I'm here or what happened, I really don't know, I was actually hoping that you could explain some of it."

Cynder snapped back at him "I'm sorry but I can't help you with that. I have my own problems…" Cynder turned away from Zach, her voice mellowing out, seeming almost sad, "and no one to help me get out of them."

"You have me to help you" Zach mentally slapped himself in the face as soon as he said it. What the heck was he thinking? There was no way he could help Cynder. He couldn't fly, he couldn't fight, and he was dead dog tired. Cynder would have to do everything to get them out, and he would just slow her down. But he just felt like he had to do something, he couldn't just leave her. "What are you doing here anyway? Why don't you just leave?"

Cynder took back her cynical tone. "Hate to break it to you but no one can help me now." Cynder walked out towards the edge of the room. As she neared the edge, a rope of green energy spanned from her neck to a gem embedded in the floor of the room.

"Oh, one of those. Can't you break the center gem though?" Zach had seen one of them before, though last time it had tethered Spyro to Cynder.

"No I've already tried, it won't break, I'm stuck here, probably forever." Cynder stopped. She still didn't have any idea who this dragon, yet she was openly talking with him. She had to be more wary. "You still haven't told me exactly who you are. Where do you come from, why are you here, and how did you sneak in like that?"

Zach stammered for answers. Cynder was asking questions now, questions he couldn't answer. His only way out of here now was going to be with Cynder's help, and that possibility was slowly slipping away from him. He needed to come up with answers, and fast. But there was always the possibility that his answers would come to bite him in the ass. "I already told you. My names Zach and as to those other questions, I can't answer them. I really have no idea where I came from, or where I'm going. I was hoping to get to the dragon temple and get some answers."

"You say you have no clue where you are, yet you know about the dragon temple, you also knew what my name was, and I never told you. You're lying to me and I know it."

Dang she was good. Zach stammered for answers again, he couldn't tell her the truth, there was no way she would believe him, and they were running out of time. He couldn't stand in this cell forever, someone was sure to come by and see him. He wracked the memories of his dreams for answer, and came up with something that might just get by, he hoped. "Cynder everyone knows who you are, you were the terror of the skies, and as for the dragon temple, I got the idea talking to some locals, very strange people by the way." Then under his breath, "as if everything here wasn't strange."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Zach just brushed off her comment, "but we need to get out of here, who knows when someone might come by and see us." There was no time for a formal explanation, everything up to this point had been a stressed conversation and nothing had been accomplished.

"Hmm." Cynder looked at him again with a stern expression on her face. "I don't trust you, and you still haven't answered all of my questions. Besides, I already told you, I'm not going anywhere, Malefore made this, and only Malefore can break the bond, but seeing as that's not possible anymore, I wont be going anywhere."

Zach was getting slightly frustrated, he could understand her distrust of him, but she was not helping things along with her disappointment. "Fine then, I'll come back with help then." Zach chaste himself again, he was only digging his grave deeper, if only he didn't have the overwhelming need to help her.

"Hah, how are you going to do that, you don't even know where the dragon temple is. Besides, I doubt anyone is there anymore, if the place still exists, and no one can help me, no one is as strong as Malefore."

"If I recall correctly, Spyro is a purple dragon, doesn't that mean he could do it?"

Cynder became more solemn again as she thought of Spyro. "Spyro's dead, there's no way he can help me"

Zach was taken aback by the news. "What, how?"

"I overheard some apes saying the threw him over the cliff into the river"

Zach calmed down a little. "Wait, so you didn't actually see him die?"

"No"

"And you believed what you heard from an ape"

"Well; yes I…"

"Seriously Cynder, you think that after all you have been through, something like that would kill Spyro?"

Some hope returned to Cynder as she considered the prospect. "What do you know about what we've been though anyway?"

"A lot more than you think actually. So will you tell me how to find the temple?"

Cynder couldn't believe what she was hearing, this dragon was dodging every question about himself. What didn't he want to tell her. "No way, I still don't trust you"

"I thought I told you to be quiet in here." The guard from outside had woken up from his sleep, and he was not happy about it.

Zach quickly shielded himself against being seen by the guard and Cynder quickly lay down where she was standing, trying to appear as if she had been crying the whole time, It didn't take any acting on her part.

"I'm trying to sleep out there, and you making any noise is making that very difficult."

Cynder looked up but not directly at the guard, "I'm sorry I…"

But the guard really didn't care how sorry Cynder was. Instead, he drew his sword and smacked Cynder in the side with his blade, the edge creating a shallow gash along her side. Zach could do nothing but watch helplessly from the side of the room.

"Maybe that will teach you to be quiet. I would rather just kill you here, but the master wants you alive for some reason, and its best not to make him angry, you're lucky wench." With that, the guard went back outside, and was soon fast asleep again.

Once Zach was sure the guard was asleep, he let down his shield and came out of hiding. "Cynder I'm sorry I didn't think…"

"Yeah some help you were, thanks a lot."

"Cynder I didn't mean to get you hurt."

"Just get out of here, no one can help me, I'm not sure I want to be helped anyway."

Zach walked up next to Cynder "Cynder, I know and you know that someone can get you out of this mess, that person just isn't me. I'll find the temple by myself if I have to but I will come back with help." Zach wanted to provide more comfort for her, but he barely knew her, except from his dreams, but that didn't count. Not knowing what else to do Zach placed on of his claws on Cynder's shoulder.

But much to Zach's surprise, when his claw came in contact with Cynder, strange green and blue sparkles started forming around his hand and flowing to Cynder. What the heck was going on, he didn't do that, did he? And what kind of a sissy thing sparkles? Maybe he was just seeing things.

"Is my hand sparkling?" Zach didn't really pose the question to anyone; it was more of a statement about how confused he was.

Cynder turned her head to see what was going on and immediately became alarmed when she saw that miniature fireworks display coming from Zach's hand, but perhaps more alarming was the fact that it was attached to her. She yelled at Zach in a hoarse whisper, taking careful care not to reawaken the guard. "What are you doing?!?"

"I don't know, my hand just started doing this"

"Well get it off before I make you take it off"

But as soon as the strange display had started, it ended. Cynder took this opportunity to get up and come face to face with Zach, putting one talon on his chest. "What did you just do?"

Zach felt fear, lots and lots of fear. There was a very angry looking dragoness with known devastating abilities with a talon on his chest. And she was pissed… at him… figures. Zach stammered as he tried to spit out the answer. "I don' know what happened… I just touched your shoulder and…"

"Oh you can do better than that, or so help me I'll…" Cynder stopped suddenly, surprise written all over her face,

Zach was now very confused. "What? What is it?"

Cynder turned and examined her side. "The gash in my side, it's gone, I can't feel it." She took a few more moments to examine the place on her side. "I think… I think you healed it. But how?"

"You got me; I didn't even know I could do that disappearing trick until I almost had to fight a group of apes earlier today."

Cynder looked at him again, it was unsettling to have someone study him like that, and the fact that it was someone from his dreams made it even creepier, add that to the fact that she was a dragon and the needle kept going up on the scale. As she looked at him, Cynder seemed to make up her mind, and her face took on a softer expression. "I still don't know exactly who you are or where you come from, but you're my best chance of getting out of here, guess I'll tell you how to find the temple, although, its really not that hard to find. First I need to know where we are."

Oh great, Zach had no clue where he was except that he was in a cliff face under a river, hopefully that would be enough. "Um right now were under the Silver River."

"What? Under it? How is that possible?"

"Well actually were in a cliff at least hundreds of feet high that the river runs over. At the base of the cliff there's a large forested valley, but that's about all I can tell you"

"Cliff face I don't know of any cliffs that high, but as for the forested valley, I think I might know. All you should have to do is follow the silver river downstream until you see the temple."

"How will I know it's the temple?"

"Oh trust me, you can t miss it"

Zach heard footsteps coming down the hall, he tried to cloak, but didn't have the energy. This could be bad; he had to go now. "Cynder I have to go, but ill be back with help, I promise."

Zach quickly clambered up and out of the window he had enter though back to ground level.

"Zach" It was Cynder, "thank you, for my side, and for everything."

Zach quickly ran from the courtyard to the cover of some nearby boulders, he had to get out of this freaky place now, and he couldn't use his powers to help him, he was way too tired. But getting out of a place should be easier than getting into it right? Zach sprinted the distance to the next group of boulders in case anyone happened to walk by. The central tunnel that would lead him out lay in front of him. As he was siting there a strange thought came to him. He was sure glad everyone here spoke English, because he would have a real hard time talking to people in a different language. But now was not the time for those thoughts, he had to get out of here. Zach made sure the coast was clear, and bolted for the passage.

Spyro was in darkness. He couldn't see anything, smell anything, he couldn't feel the ground under his feet. Where was he? "Hello… is anyone here?"

There was no answer, not even an echo from his own voice. "Where am I?"

"Spyro… Spyro…" oh great, creepy voices, again. As if this hadn't happened to him before.

"Spyro why did you leave me… don't you care for me?"

A light appeared in front of Spyro, blinding him and casting a shadow on an unknown figure. The figure started walking towards him.

"Who are you, what do you want?"

But the figure kept coming closer. "I needed you and you left me alone, why didn't you come to find me Spyro?" As the figure approached, Spyro started to make out the shape of a dragon, a young dragon, a young black dragon.

"Cynder is that you?"

"Why weren't you there Spyro, you left me alone, and now I'm trapped, why did you do it?

"Cynder I didn't mean to… I…"

"Why Spyro, why?" As Cynder kept asking him questions, the darkness started to return, slowly blocking out the light from the doorway.

"Why?"

The darkness started to make its way towards where Cynder was standing, but she didn't seem to notice. He had to get Cynder out of there. "Cynder look out!" He had to save her; he wasn't going to lose her again.

"Why Spyro?" The darkness seemed to become a tangible wave as it rose from the ground and towered behind Cynder.

"Cynder get out of the way" Spyro continued to run at Cynder, but she never seemed to get any closer.

"Why did you leave me like this Spyro?" The wave of darkness crashed down on Cynder engulfing her, and rushed towards him. "Spyro?"

"Cynder!"

Spyro found himself lying in the center of the outside platform of the temple; it was just another nightmare. He had been having them all day and hadn't gotten much sleep. But it wasn't as if he could do anything else. With his bad leg and wing, he couldn't go anywhere. But e had to do something, Cynder was out who knows where with a bunch of apes, and it was all his fault. He had to go find Cynder. Spyro put weight on his three good legs and tried to stand on the fourth, it caused him a great amount of pain, but he could do it more or less. He would just have to avoid using it as much as possible. Spyro took a few tentative steps on his legs, and groaned in pain every time he set his injured leg down. He could take the pain, maybe if he could get to the edge of the temple platform he could glide down to the ground. But that depended on how bad his wing was. Spyro turned to his wing and started using his teeth to unwrap the bandages holding it in place.

"And what do you think you're doing young dragon?"

Spyro stopped cold with the bandages still in his mouth.

"You aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

Spyro turned to see Terador standing in the doorway. "I thought I told you that you shouldn't be going anywhere until your leg and wing heal, or did I tell that to another young purple dragon?"

"I'm sorry Terador, but I need to go find Cynder." Spyro continued to unwrap the bandages from his wing.

"Oh no you don't" Terador walked over to Spyro and picked him up with one of his claws. Spyro was too week to protest. " I already told you that we would lock you up if that's what it took to keep you here, now you need to lay down and rest, let the other guardians and I take care of finding Cynder."

"I know Terador, but I can't help but feeling responsible for what happened to Cynder, I can't stop thinking about it, and I can't sleep, I keep having nightmares."

Terador looked ashamed when Spyro mentioned his nightmares. Spyro lay back down on the bed that was there for him. "You heard me then"

"Yes Spyro I did, but you must know. What happened wasn't your fault, you couldn't have done anything more, you were tired and without powers, just be glad you made it out of that alive. You can help look for Cynder once you get better, but that won't be for quite a while, so for now, rest, get better, and let us search for Cynder, I'm sure she can take care of herself wherever she is." With that, Terador walked back off the platform.

"Terador, wait." Terador appeared back in the doorway.

"What is it Spyro?"

"Isn't there anything I can do to help, anything at all?"

"You're not leaving if that's what you're thinking."

"No not that, but is there anything here I can do?"

"Spyro you need to rest now, we still don't know where Cynder is, and since you can t go out to look for her, the best thing you can do is be healthy when we do find her, because I doubt we'll just be able to walk in a get her."

Spyro felt dejected. Cynder was out there alone, with apes, who knows what she was going through, and all he could do was sit here and sleep. "I feel so useless. I have to do something"

"Rest easy Spyro, you don't have to do anything, your not the savior of the world anymore, rest and let other people do the work, you've earned that and much more."

Spyro watched as Terador turned and left the room again, while what he said made sense, he could never understand, not the way he felt right now. Cynder was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. As he lay there and looked at the sky, he couldn't sort out his emotions, why did things like this always happen to him? What kind of a cruel world was this, that he was saved from one disaster and thrown into another? What kind of a life was that? Would he ever have a normal life? These thoughts swirled through his head as he lay there, keeping him from sleep. Eventually his body could not function any more and gave into sleep due to sheer exhaustion. But still in his dreams, he was tormented by his thoughts.

This was not good; Zach was in deep, again. Zach tore down a hallway, taking the left passage when it split into two, he hoped this was the right direction; otherwise, he was going to run into a bunch of angry apes. Zach barreled down the hallway; the angry cries seemed to be further away. He must be going in the right direction. This was partially his fault, but he really didn't have a choice, he needed to get out of the cavern and he couldn't dodge all of the patrols. Who patrols a cave anyway? Zach came to another T in the passage; right would take him back into the mountain, so he took the left passage. He had been so close to getting away without a hitch; he had made it back into the cave with the opening to the waterfall where he had encountered the apes earlier. He had been walking out of the central passage, when a patrol had appeared from one of the side passages; by the time he noticed it was too late. And apes don't really take to kindly to an unknown dragon in there secret lair (if you would even call it that) and all hell broke lose after that. Zach had no chance to get past them, so he turned and bolted into the maze of passages in the cliff. That was the start of a chase that had lasted a good half-hour by now. He had returned to the central chamber at least two times, had gotten lost four, and had hid in a corner for a good five minutes before an ape quite literally stumbled over him, which was why he was in the current position he was in. And all of this was made worse by the fact that he couldn't cloak himself, he had tried on multiple occasions, but he was far too tired, he wondered if he would ever be able to do it again. But now was not the time to bother with that, he needed a way out. Zach came out of the passageway he was in into another connecting chamber. While there were many passages to choose from, Zach thought he could hear the roar of the waterfall coming stronger though one of the passages, and he didn't really have time to pick and choose with a bunch of angry apes chasing him. As Zach ran down the hallway, he started to feel light headed, he was out of shape, and the drain from using his power wasn't helping either. This chase was going to end soon one way or another. Zach reappeared in the first chamber, the one with the opening to the waterfall; he knew how to get out of here now. All he had to do was take the passage to the left and follow it down the hillside…

"There he is! Get him!"

Oh, things just couldn't be easy could they? Zach turned back around and ran back into the chamber. He was stuck now. He couldn't get out, and he couldn't go back into the mountain, they probably had all the paths blocked by now, and he would just tire of running and get caught anyway. He didn't really have any options. He could try to fight, but he didn't know how and would only get himself killed in the process. He needed a way out, but he couldn't think, the roar of the waterfall was drowning out his thoughts, he really couldn't hear himself think…

Oh no, that was the last thing he was going to do, he would drown in the waterfall, who knows how high it was off the ground. Add that to the fact that he couldn't fly if he was too far off the ground, jumping through that waterfall was not going to happen. He didn't even know if there was open air on the other side.

"Hah! We've got him now, he's trapped. Everyone form up"

Figures, he was trapped, they had blocked off all the passages from him. And boy were there a lot of them. About twenty angry apes all bearing down on him. It was time for drastic action, and it involved flinging himself off a cliff… again… except this time it was through a waterfall. Things just kept getting better and better.

Zach started backing away from the advancing apes, where did all these guys come from? He thought all the apes had died, but there was living proof in front of him, well at least he hoped they were living. Zach's foot slipped off the edge of the cave mouth. This was it, there was no way back, again.

"Any last words you worthless dragon?"

"Uh yeah, just a few, I am totally crazy"

"What" the ape looked at him with confusion plastered all over his face, it was almost comical.

"My point exactly." With that, Zach turned and jumped out of the cave mouth, into the waterfall.

Immediately he was forced down by the crushing force of the waterfall, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die." Of course, he couldn't say this aloud as he was falling through a waterfall. Zach tried to open his wings, but the falling water made it impossible, he was caught in the waters, and he couldn't get out. After falling for what seemed like forever, Zach crashed into the waters below. Zach panicked, which way was up, how would he get out of here. He was running out of air, he needed to breathe, but not now he was under water. Zach flailed his limbs, and finally established his bearings, he needed to go up and out to get away from the falls. Zach tried to swim with his limbs, but made absolutely no headway, it was like trying to do the dog paddle upside down. As soon as he made any progress, he was caught in the undertow and thrown back into the falls. He needed air. Now! But he was still underwater. Unfortunately, his need for air overpowered his rational mind, and he gasped for air, underwater. Water started to fill Zach's lungs and he started to lose consciousness. He had one last chance; maybe if he used his wings like giant fins, he could get enough force to escape. On the edge on consciousness, Zach thrust out his wings and pulled them back with all the force he could. The force was just enough to help him escape from the undertow. Zach broke the surface gasping for air and choking on water in his lungs, he got just enough air to keep him from falling unconscious. Zach used his wings again to propel him towards shore. Once Zach could put his feet on the ground, he collapsed, coughing up water all the way, but he would not lose consciousness, not now. He had to get away from the falls, the apes might follow to see if he was still alive, and he couldn't even run now.

Zach stumbled away from the water edge and into the forest. He had to find a place to hide, anywhere. As he was stumbling through the forest, he came to a hill with a large rock protruding out of the side creating a small cave. This looked like as good of a place as any to hide. Zach crawled under the rock and kicked at the rock over the opening. This created a small cascade of rocks that closed off the opening. He could still breathe and he could still kick them out when he needed to, but for now, they covered him. If anyone wanted to find him, they would have to dig though rocks to find him and that seemed unlikely. He was actually hiding under a rock. If he weren't so tired, he probably would have laughed at the irony

As Zach lay there still coughing up water, he realized that every limb on his body was shaking. He had been running on adrenaline for the last half-hour, and it was wearing off. He was physically and emotionally spent, he needed sleep. Someone could have a knife to his throat right now, and it was an actually possibility, but he didn't care, he was too tired to care, he needed sleep.

"Do you think we should go look for that dragon?"

"No, there's no way he could have survived that fall."

"What if he landed in the water, couldn't he have lived then?

"No, everyone knows dragons can't swim, he'll have drowned by now. Now I'm hungry lets go back and get some food. Maybe we can get double rations for this."

With that, the apes turned and walked back into the depths of the cliff.

Cynder tried to look out the window but the chain held her too far from it. Something had been happening outside, something big. Minutes after Zach had left, the area had become a flurry of activity, apes going everywhere, lots of yelling. But of course, she had no idea what was going on, although she had an unsettling feeling that Zach was the cause of the commotion. While she didn't really know him, and wasn't sure if she should trust him, he was still her only hope of getting out of this mess. Cynder gave up trying to see out of the window. Whatever had happened seemed to be over now, she hoped Zach was ok. She returned to the center of the room to lie down. All she could do now was wait, so she might as well make herself comfortable.

"Ah I see you have noticed all the commotion about, perhaps you had something to do with it?" The same ape that had first greeted her was standing in the doorway again.

"You again, I already told you, I'm not going to talk to you, and I'm never going back."

"A little more confident now are we? Well don't get your hopes up. The guards disposed of that white dragon just as easily as they got rid of Spyro. Funny thing, I've never seen him before, oh well he won't trouble us anymore."

Cynder was taken aback by his statements, but quickly hid her face, she wasn't going to show her feeling to this monster, and he was probably lying anyway. But she had not been quick enough to hide her face.

"Ah so you knew him as well, it seems that everyone you know goes to their deaths because of you." The ape walked over to Cynder and started to whisper in her ear. "No one can save you here, those who have tried to save you are dead, all your friends are dead, and no one else knows you're here." The ape turned and walked towards the window, which he could see out of. "You should just give in now Cynder, you have no hope, no one can save you, why not make it easier on yourself and give in now."

"I already told you, I will never go back."

"Oh I think you will, you just need some… convincing" the ape pulled a small gem out of his packet. Immediately, the snake around her neck flashed, forming a connection between her and the gem in the ape's hand.

This was Cynder's chance, she jumped at the ape, trying to get the gem out of his had. If she could get the gem, she could get out of here. But that possibility never came to pass. As she moved toward the ape, he drew back his hand and sent her across the room.

"If you ever try that again, I don't care what the master says, I will kill you."

"Who are you?"

The ape gave her a devilish grin "that's unimportant. Now let's go, we have some business to attend to."

As Cynder followed the ape down the hallway, she couldn't help but feel like she was being led to her doom.

Zach awoke to darkness, again. But he remembered where he was. He almost laughed at the prospect. He really was hiding under a rock. Zach lay quietly in his cover. He felt so much better after he slept, but just how long had he been out, he didn't know. He did need to get out though, the air had become stale and he was lying in a cramped position. Zach kicked at the rocks that had piled up over the entrance, breaking out into the fresh air. Zach crawled out and stretched. The sun was high in the sky now. How long had he been asleep? Either he had slept through the night and most of the next day, or he hadn't slept that long at all. By the way he felt, he would guess that he hadn't been asleep all that long. While the aches and pains from running thorough the caverns had subsided, and he could think clearly, some part of him felt drained, as if he had no energy. Zach was curious, maybe sleeping had restored his ability to bend the light around his body. Zach focused, concentrating on his arm as he had done before. Nothing, he still couldn't do it. What if he never could do it again? Oh well, easy come easy go, though it could just as easily come back in time.

Zach looked around, he was lost in a forest, again. That just seemed to be the story of his life right now.

Waking up lost in forests and jumping off cliffs to get away from apes trying to kill him. But this time he knew where he was going, sort of. While Cynder said all he would have to do was follow the Silver River, she hadn't said where it was exactly. Well, she had actually said "you can't miss it" and hopefully that meant that it was really big. But then again, she probably expected him to fly along the river, and he couldn't do that. Maybe he should have mentioned that important piece of information. Hopefully it was close, otherwise he was going to spend a few days trudging though the forest, as if he hadn't spent enough time trudging though the forest already. But first things first, he needed to find the river again. He had two options, he could retrace his steps and go back to the waterfall, he could hear it from where he was so it wouldn't be that hard to find. Or he could trudge through the forest until he found the river again. While he didn't really want to go back to the waterfall, he could easily get lost and never find the river if he went off in a different direction. So as much as he didn't want to go back and possible run into apes, he really, really didn't want to get lost again.

Zach started back towards the river, following what he thought was a path. At the very least, there wasn't much undergrowth and the path was fairly easy to follow. Zach eventually made it back to the bottom of the waterfall. He hid in the shrubs on the edge of the forest, it didn't look like anyone was looking for him, at least something was starting to go his way. But even if he didn't see anyone, he still had to be careful, the last thing he wanted to do was get caught, there was really nowhere to run anymore. Zach started to walk along the edge of the forest. While it didn't offer as much cover as deep in the forest, he could move much faster while still being partially covered.

Zach walked for a good half mile before he was convinced that no one would be around to spot him. Zach moved from the edge of the forest out onto the bank of the river. Thankfully, it was a shallow incline from the river, making a good path for Zach to follow. As Zach walked down the side of the river, he got lost in thought again. This world was just getting weirder and weirder, but at least he had some idea of what was going on now. He had met Cynder, not in the best circumstances, but met her just the same. And Spyro had been mentioned a few times. That meant that this really was the world from his dreams, and that meant he had some information he could go on. But that still didn't answers his biggest question. Why was he here? Was there a reason or was he just the casualty of some freak accident? Maybe he would finally get some answers when he got to the temple. No, that was not the most important thing right now. Someone's life was at stake, and his questions could wait for that. Which brought him to another question, where the heck was the temple? It would take him forever to find it at this rate, but he needed to keep moving, and not just for his own sake.

How long had he been walking. The sun had already started its decent in the sky, if this world was anything like earth he had been walking for about two hours, and boy did he feel it. He wasn't quite sore yet, but he could feel the tightness in his muscles. As soon as he got a chance, the first thing he was going to do was sleep, for a long time. That's all he had wanted to do since day one, but between turning into a dragon, running from apes, jumping off cliffs, and getting lost in forests, he really didn't have a chance to sleep at all. But now was not the time, he needed to keep focused.

Zach stopped, something wasn't quite right. Zach tried to keep as quiet as possible as he searched his surroundings. Nothing. Maybe he was getting paranoid. It was possible after all, he was jumping at every sound, and people had been trying to kill him. Zach started walking, but stopped again. He knew he had heard something this time. Zach started to move towards the forest, he needed cover now.

Zach slipped into the forest just as a group of apes walked into view. What was it with these apes, they were everywhere. Zach needed more cover, he was sure to be seen where he was. Zach quietly slipped further into the forest as the apes got nearer. Zach got to a clearing in the forest and turned back to make sure no one was following him. No one had. As he looked back he could see the group of apes, there had to be almost forty of them. Where the heck were they all coming from? He assumed they were headed to the caves, but why? Apes meant bad news, he knew that much, but a lot of apes in the same place, that was even worse. Zach watched carefully as the last ape walked out of site. Zach lay down against a tree, if he started running into more groups, he would have to start walking through the thick forest. Zach looked around, he really didn't want to have to walk through all this.

As Zach looked around the forest, he noticed something shinny in the distance. "What is that?" Its not like he had ADD and was attracted to shiny objects, but something was drawing him too it. What was it? Zach figured he could find the river easy enough from where he was so he set of towards the glimmer. As Zach got closer, he noticed that it was a green crystal that seemed to draw him in. He had seen these before many times in his dreams, Spyro and Cynder had often touched them, but he could never figure out what they were for. As the crystal drew him in, Zach reached out a hand, he was a dragon now, he should be able to touch it, right?

As soon as his hand touched the Crystal, Zach felt a rush of energy flow through him. The fatigue he had been feeling washed away in the energy's flow, he felt refreshed, renewed, and most of his aches and pains were gone. Zach removed his hand from the crystal. He felt great again; he could probably even… Zach smirked as his hand disappeared from sight. His power was back. He could hide again if he needed to. Obviously, he needed power from this crystal like he needed food. That reminded him, he hadn't eaten all day and he still wasn't hungry. That was odd. Zach touched the crystal again to make sure he had all the energy he would need and set off again. After reaching the clearing around the river, Zach set off again downstream. He had what he needed to get to the temple. Now all he had to do was find it.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me."

Cynder was right when she said you couldn't miss it, because you really couldn't, even from the river. This was because the whole temple was floating… in the air… without anything toughing the ground.

"How the heck am I supposed to get up there" Zach studied the temple. It was sitting on top if a large slab of earth that tapered down into a point at the end that hung at least fifty feet off the ground, probably more, he really couldn't tell from this where he was. He had almost missed it. He wasn't really looking in the air for a building and had only noticed when he walked into an extremely large shadow. He didn't really know what to think at first, It just seemed like a giant floating object, but the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that it was the temple, but now he had another problem, he had to get up there, or get someone to come down. He had no idea how he was going to do either. Zach started through the forest, maybe if he got closer to the temple he could find some way up there, or get someone's attention.

Zach trudged through the forest, he was really getting tired of this. This world seemed be a big practical joke sometimes. He really needed to learn how to fly. He had wings after all. He just needed to learn how to use them. As Zach was wandering through the forest, he kept his eye on the floating temple. He needed a bearing to keep from getting lost. As he was wandering, he noticed a dragon flying overhead.

"Hey… Hey! Down here." The dragon just kept flying towards the temple. He probably couldn't hear Zach from way up there. As Zach got closer, he noticed a clearing towards the base of the temple. He probably could get spotted better if he was standing in the clearing. Zach moved through the forest and into the clearing.

And was immediately caught in an updraft.

"Woah….." Zach's wings caught the updraft, flinging him up into the air. "Someone stop this thing," Zach soared higher and higher into the air. Now he knew why there was a clearing right here in the middle of the forest. He was flying through the air again. But maybe that was a good thing. If he could get high enough from the updraft, he could probably get to some part of the temple. Zach soared out the top of the updraft, he was high enough that he could make it to a platform outside of the temple. Zach set his sights on the platform and moved towards it as he glided towards the platform he couldn't help but remember his last attempt at landing. This was going to be bad, very, very bad.

Spyro lay awake on the platform; he still hadn't gotten any sleep. All his dreams turned to nightmares, leaving him panting and sweating when he awoke. Often when he slept, he tossed and turned, aggravating his injuries. What was he going to do? He wasn't allowed outside, and all he was told to do was sleep. But he couldn't sleep, so all he did was lay around in a dreamlike state, agitated and confused. What was he going to do?

He didn't care what anyone said, he was tired of lying around. Spyro got up and walked towards the edge of the platform. He wasn't going to try and go anywhere, he had reconciled himself to the fact that he couldn't save Cynder, not in the state he was in. But he needed a change of scenery. Spyro looked out over the edge; everything had changed since the destroyer had been resurrected. There were a few things that had been left untouched, but much of the landscape had changed. Even in the short days that he had been here, he had come to call this place home, but now everything had changed. Cynder could be out there anywhere, and he didn't have any clue as to where to start.

Spyro stood there looking out at the landscape, feeling the cool breeze, listening to the whistle of the wind… wait, that wasn't the wind.  
"Incoming!!!!" Spyro backed up incredibly confused as dust was kicked up along a path on the platform, he hadn't seen anything fly in, but something had landed there. It had to be an assault.

"Intruder!"

"Hey, woah, wait a second here, I'm on your side."

The voice seemed to come from the air in front of him "Then why can't I see you?"

"Huh? Oh I really have to stop introducing myself this way." Spyro stood in amazement as a white dragon suddenly took up the space where moments before there had only been air. "My names Zach, nice to finally meet you Spyro."

That was incredibly blunt for someone appearing out of thin air like that. "Whoa! Stop. How did you know my name?" How was it that everyone knew who he was but he didn't have a clue as to who they were?

"Long story but now is not the time, I know where Cynder is, and she needs your help."

The new dragon immediately had Spyro's attention. "Where is she? Why didn't you get her out? Can you take me too her?"

"Easy Spyro I'll need your help to get her out, but you don't look like you're in any shape to help, I'm guessing that's from your fall off the cliff."

"How did you know about that, you seem to now a lot about me but don't know anything about you? Why is that?" this was really getting annoying.

"I'm sorry Spyro, I didn't mean to, part of it will take a long time to explain, but I knew about your fall because I've talked to Cynder."

"What? You talked to her? Was she ok? And do you know who took her?"

"Yes I talked to her. She was more or less ok when I talked to her, and I would guess that the numerous apes that were there were the ones who captured her." Zach was almost sorry he had started the conversation so soon, Cynder's safety consumed Spyro's mind.

"Apes, what are you talking about? All the apes are dead"

"No they're not. I've had to dodge them all the way here, they really have something against dragons."

"But that doesn't make any sense…

"Join the club, nothings that has happened to me today has made sense."

As they were talking, Terador burst onto the platform and immediately set his sights on Zach. "Step away from him, I don't know who you are or who sent you, but you will not get what you came for."

Zach was in deep trouble now, why was it that everyone was trying to kill him. He was only saved when Spyro stepped in front of him.

"It's ok Terador, he knows where Cynder is."

Even Terador seemed to be taken back by the news. "What? How?"

"Seriously it's a very long story, and I don't think Cynder has the time. She's currently being held in a series of caves in a large cliff face north of here."

"Cliff face? There are no cliff faces north of here in Avalar."

"Well I don't know what else you would call it, but I do know where she is."

It was Terador's tun to talk. "Good, you can tell us where and the other guardians and I will go and get her, a few apes shouldn't be a problem."

"Yes but there's another problem with you plan. The reason Cynder isn't with me is she's being held there by the same kind of chain that bound her to Spyro not that long ago. Only the person who made it can remove it, and Malefore was the person who made it. So you can see how that would cause a problem."

"What how do you know about all that…"

"I already told you, it's a very long story."

"But if she is stuck with one of those on her, how will we ever get her out? Malefore is dead, if he made it, no one can get it off her." Spyro looked downhearted as he came to this realization, may be no way to save her. "But we have to try"

"As I was saying earlier, I think I may know a way around it, unfortunately there's a problem with that as well."

Both dragons looked at Zach, impatiently waiting for him to finish.

"I think that Spyro may be able to break it."

"What, I don't have that power. Do you think Cynder and I would have traveled all over the country side together bound by those things if we didn't have to, I don't think so."

"Spyro I don't know if you haven't noticed or what, but your purple, and that means a lot more than you have purple scales. I would guess you have the same amount of power as Malefore, you should be able to break it."

Both Spyro and Terador looked at Zach. What he just said made sense, but he would only know those things if he had followed Spyro through all of his travels. And that didn't make any sense. Who was this dragon?

Spyro was the firs one to talk. "I don't think I could do that, I'm not that powerful."

Terador cut him off. "Spyro… he's actually correct, you are a purple dragon, with the right reason you have the power to do anything. You just saved the world not more than a day ago, what makes you think you can't do this?"

"I don't know, but it really doesn't matter, as much as I hate to admit it, I can't go anywhere like this, if what you say is true, it will be months before we can go. And by then it will be too late.

Zach thought back to what had happened earlier with Cynder. Maybe he could do it again. "I have another idea that might solve that problem. Spyro will you let me see your wing?"

Spyro looked at Zach for a minute, trying to decide if he should let this strange dragon look at his wounded wing.

"I know it sounds weird, but please trust me on this one."

In the end, he unwrapped his bandage and splayed his wing out on the ground in front of Zach. The wing was mangled and bent in different places, some places were bruised and inflamed, and parts of the wing membrane were torn or missing altogether, in other words, it was a mess. Parts of Spyro's mainstay were bent at angles close to ninety degrees. His wing would have to be set back into shape before it could be healed, and that was going to be painful.

"Ok before I try this, if what I think is going to happen happens it will be very painful but it should heal your wing, are you sure you want me to try this?"

Spyro thought about it for a second. But if it meant saving Cynder, he could deal with the pain. "Ok do it."

Terador turned to Zach. "What are you going to do, and how do you know it will be painful?"

"As to what will happen I'm not sure, but bones snapping back into place would be quite painful."

"How do you know these things?"

Now it was Zach's turn to think. How did he know these things? "I really don't know the answer to that either" it was as if he had knowledge of what was wrong with Spyro and how to fix it.

Terador turned back to Spyro. "Are you sure you want to go through with this Spyro?"

"If it means helping Cynder, then yes. I'm ready"

Zach reached out and touched Spyro's wing. Just like with Cynder, his hand began to spark when it cam into contact with Spyro's skin. But unlike with Cynder, Zach was watching what would happen this time. Everyone watched in amazement as Spyro's wing seemed to realign itself and begin to heal over, everyone that is but Spyro. Zach looked over at the purple dragon. His face was in a very serious expression and it was obvious that he was gritting his teeth. Either Spyro didn't want anyone to see him cry out or he didn't want someone to stop it because he was in pain. Zach guessed the second. Spyro would do anything for Cynder, even go through this torture. It was very obvious he loved her. Through his concern and rapid-fire questions when Zach showed up, and the fact that he was enduring this pain for her, plus Zach had the added bonus of watching them together in his dreams. Zach wondered if Spyro had ever told Cynder how he felt, and he wondered the same about Cynder.

Zach turned his attention back to Spyro's wing, something wasn't quite right. The bones and such in Spyro's wing were aligned, but they weren't fusing back together. Maybe he shouldn't have tried this. Cynder's wound was only a gash, not realigning bones, muscle, and tissue. As Zach grew more concerned about Spyro's wing, a sudden compulsion to breathe on Spyro's wing came over him. While he though it was strange, he couldn't stop himself from doing it. As Zach breathed lightly over Spyro's wing, he was shocked to she a green mist laced with blue streaks and sparks come out of his mouth. What was going on? It almost didn't matter anymore, it was just another weird thing to happen to him today, almost…

But more shocking than the fact that this mist was coming out of Zach mouth, was the effect it was having on Spyro's wing. Zach could see the bones, muscles, and tendons all stitching themselves back together, the bruising and swelling on other parts of his wing diapered, and tears and breaks in the wing membrane were completely healed over. Then as suddenly as it had all started, it was over. Zach backed away form Spyro's wing, he needed to lie down again, he had that same drained feeling he had after he couldn't cloak anymore.

"Amazing!" Terador simply stood in amazement looking at Spyro's fully healed wing.

Spyro on the other had, was just glad it was all over. Spyro stood up from where he was on the ground and flexed his wings, putting them thorough their full range of motion, making sure that everything still worked. "That worked well, although I never want to go through it again."

Zach almost laughed. "I hate to break it to you Spyro, but you are going to have to go through it again." Zach nodded in the direction of Spyro's still broken leg.

Spyro let out a groan, this was not going to be fun.

"Don't worry Spyro, ill give you a minute to recover. That last bit drained all my energy. I can't do another, not without getting more energy from a crystal."

"Here Zach, I'll show you where one is in the temple." Terador turned and led Zach into the temple.

Zach gazed in amazement at the inside of the temple. Large hallways conjoined rooms that were large enough to fit houses in. It was an amazing piece of architecture. The only thing that Zach wondered was how it was built. The dragons didn't have opposable thumbs or anything, and the walls looked like they were crafted by tools, maybe someone else built it. Then there was the fact that this whole thing was floating in the air. Zach just shook his head, too many questions, and they would all have to wait.

Terador led him into a room with a collection of the green crystals he had found in the forest. Zach walked up to the nearest one and placed his hand on it. He immediately felt the flow of energy coming through the crystal. It was time to go try again.

Zach and Terador walked back out onto the platform where Spyro was still waiting, he was lying down and had already unwrapped his bandage on his bad leg. Zach walked up to Spyro.

"Are you ready for this, its probably going to hurt more than your wing; the bone is thicker in your leg."

Spyro looked at Zach and spoke through already gritted teeth. "Do it"

Zach reached out and touched Spyro's leg. Just like last time, the leg realigned itself, but didn't begin to fully heal. Once again, Zach felt a compulsion to breathe on Spyro's leg, and once again, a strange mist came out of his mouth when he did. Except this time, Zach wasn't paying attention to what was happening to Spyro's leg, but to what was happening himself. Zach tried to find where this mist was coming from. But every time he concentrated too hard, the mist coating Spyro's leg would thin out. Zach stopped trying to figure it out. He seemed to be able to do it on instinct, and Spyro's leg needed the attention right now. He couldn't afford to stop.

After a few minutes, the flow of mist and energy stopped. Zach felt slightly better than he did last time. Either he was gathering endurance or that wasn't as difficult to fix as a wing. But he still was wiped out. "I need to go get more energy, I'm wiped out again."

"Already?"

"Yeah, doing that really takes it out of me, I'll be right back" Zach walked off into the temple, alone this time. He returned to the room with the crystals and repeated the process again. When he walked back out to the platform, Terador and Spyro were talking. But when he came into view, they stopped. It didn't take much guessing to know that they were talking about him. "What's going on?"

"We were just talking about how we were going to go about getting Cynder. I want to wait for the other guardians to get back, but Spyro wants to go now."

"Well when are the guardians supposed to get back?"

"I don't know"

"Well then that should answer your question, besides, we should get Cynder out of there as soon as possible. Add that to that fact that Spyro is going to go now whether you join him or not…"

"Hey, I wouldn't…" Spyro butted in, his voice almost cracking.

"I don't blame you. She's very important to you, and it would be crazy to expect you to do anything less. So Terador, what are you going to do?"

"I suppose I don't really have a choice. We will leave as soon as possible."

"Well good luck to you guys then."

Spyro shot a confused look at Zach "What. You have to come with us. You may be the only one who can find where Cynder is being kept. Besides, we need all the help we can get"

"Yeah, about that… there's a slight problem with that…"

"What do you mean? What could possibly keep you from going?"

"Umm… well… I can t fly."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: look, I don't know the answer to that question either, so stop asking me.

Terador and Spyro shot Zach a glance. "What do you mean you can't fly?"

"Hey, don't laugh at me. If I remember correctly, someone didn't know how to fly for a long time either."

Spyro just stared at Zach, he really had to stop doing that, it would just make things more difficult to explain, and he didn't need them to be asking questions now. For the first time Zach wondered what he would really tell them. Would he tell them he was human, and if he did, would they believe him, it was likely, enough weird stuff happened on this world anyway. But what if they didn't believe him, would they think he was crazy, and did he want them to know anything about his world.

"Zach, you ok?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking. But you guys can go without me, I can't fly and I can't fight either. I would just be slowing you down."

"Zach you may be the only one who can find Cynder again. You know what the place looks like, and if they haven't moved Cynder, you can lead us right to her. Not to mention the fact that wee will need all the help we can get."

Zach just shook his head. "What part of, I don't know how to fly didn't you understand. I would just get in your way"

Terador addressed Zach "we still could use your help, form what Spyro tells me, he couldn't see you when you landed, if you could do that again, it would help us get in undetected. Then there's the fact that Cynder might not be in the best condition when we get there. We may need you to help get her on her feet."

While what Terador said made sense to Zach, they didn't seem to be getting one crucial detail. "I understand that, but it doesn't solve the problem of me getting back there, It took me hours to walk here following the river. You can get there much faster if you go by yourselves."

Spyro broke into the conversation. "If you can't fly, then how did you get up here?"

"There's a clearing around the base of the temple, when I walked into it, I was caught in an updraft, all that I had to do was glide over here after it threw me high enough."

"Hmm… I didn't know there was one around the temple, ill have to remember to check it out some other time"

"Can we focus here" Spyro was beginning to get frustrated, "you two are talking while Cynder's siting in a cell somewhere."

"Easy Spyro. Your right, you two should get going."

"You really should come with us Zach, we could use your help"

"Unless you can find some way to get me there quickly, or teach me to fly in the next five minutes, I'm not going with you."

Terador had a grin on his face, and Spyro looked like he was doing all he could from bursting out in laughter. "That can be arranged."

This did not sound good.

Cynder was thrown back into her cell. It had been the third time today that the ape had come to "talk" to her… Yeah right, talk… Cynder sat up from where she had landed and shifted to a more comfortable position, taking care not to aggravate any of the injuries she had accumulate through all of her "talks". At least now she could get some rest. She had to stay strong. She would not give in to the darkness, not again. If she did, she would never be able to forgive herself. She still had hope, but even that was waning. It had been hours since Zach had left. While she didn't think that the temple would be very close she figured Zach could have found it by now. Maybe Zach really was dead. He didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing, what if the apes really had caught him. And even if he had made it to the temple, What if Spyro wasn't there, what if he was dead? Would Zach just have given up and left her here? There were too many ifs in what could have happened. While it hadn't been that long since Zach left, there were too many things that could have gone wrong, too many unexplained things that had happened recently.

Cynder tried to get a better look at her wounds, she had multiple bruises on her sides and back as well as countless scrapes and small wounds. But the most troublesome thing was the long jagged wound that ran down he side, across her arm, and then down her chest. It was a deep wound, but it had missed everything vital. The apes had made sure of that. They wanted her alive for something, but for what, she still didn't know. The large wound was a constant pain, every time she moved, the pain would flair up again. So Cynder tried to stay as immobile as possible. But even then, she could feel the wound sapping every last bit of her strength. She could barely move anymore. Cynder lay back down on her side. Why did everything like this happen to her? What was so special about her, why did everyone go after her?

Cynder looked out of the window again. No moon, no stars, no sky. Just darkness. Zach had said they were in a giant cave, so it would make sense. But the lack of these things just made her capture more complete. They had taken everything away from her. Her power, her freedom, her friends, her hope…

Cynder put her head down and cried herself to sleep.

Zach stood out on the central platform. He was beginning to think that these people were crazy. He had spent the last few minutes trying to "feel the power of the ancestors flow through him." or something like that. But he didn't really believe that kind of stuff. However, he did feel need to at least try to fly. Zach tried flapping his wings hard and fast a few times, but all he did was tire himself out.

"Not like that Zach, you're trying too hard. Just relax and do what comes naturally. Let your instinct guide you."

Zach was seriously wondering if these dragons were sane, but then again, noting in this world had made sense so far. And they could fly, so why shouldn't he be able to. So there must be some truth to their statement. But Zach didn't think it should work. How could his wings lift his whole body and not get tired after five seconds? Maybe that was his problem. Zach always had a problem of overanalyzing a situation. And that usually made things harder. Zach looked over at Spyro. He could fly, and he was about the same size as Zach. If Spyro could. Why couldn't he? He was in a different world. He would just have to accept the fact that there were going to be things he didn't understand, and boy were there were a lot of things he didn't understand.

"Zach you're still trying too much. You can do this you just need to let your instinct take over. Now try one more time. But close your eyes and listen to my voice."

Zach closed his eyes and let the world around him melt away. He had nothing to lose.

"Zach you are a dragon. You have powers that you have only begun to discover. Flying is no different. It is a part of who you are. All you need to do is let that part come out. You can fly Zach. All you need to do is listen to what comes naturally to you. Don't try to force yourself to fly, but let your wings carry you up into the air… there that's it… good…"

Zach didn't feel any different, what was Terador mumbling about?

"Perfect… let the power of the ancestors flow through you… that's it… now…"

Terador's voice drifted off.

"Now what? What were you going to say?" There was no reply. Zach was getting nervous. Something was going on and he couldn't see. Zach opened his eyes…

And found himself forty feet above the platform.

Zach panicked and faltered. How had he gotten up here? He wasn't flying was he? Zach started to fall back towards the platform and realized that he had stopped flapping his wings. Zach threw them out to slow his fall. He must have flown some. How else would he have gotten up so high? But he hadn't thought about moving his wings, and he hadn't felt himself leave the ground.

He needed to relax. He had flown some, even if it was only for a short time, so he could do it again. It should be just like walking in the sense that he could just do it without thinking. Zach closed his eyes again and started moving his outstretched wings in the air currents. Zach moved his wings through the air, dipping and weaving, letting his wings go where it felt natural, not where he thought they should go. He hadn't hit the ground yet so he must be doing something right.

Zach felt the wind against his face and opened his eyes. This time he was well above the temple moving in a slow lazy circle. It felt so good to be up the air. The freedom of the skies, the wind against his body. It was pure joy. Nothing could ever compare to this. Zach looked back at his wings, watching them as the moved gracefully through the air. If there was one thing he loved out of his situation, this was it. Up here he felt free from the world, free from his problems and responsibilities. As Zach became more confident he started to experiment with different dives and turns, but never trying anything too dramatic. It felt so good to be up here.

Zach looked down at the temple and saw Spyro take off from the platform and head towards him. He did have responsibilities right now. They needed to find Cynder, well go get her actually; they knew where she should be. Zach waved Spyro back and headed down to the platform. As Zach got closer to the platform one thing became clear. He still didn't know how to land.

When Zach approached the platform, he tried to pitch his body up, and pumped his wings quickly in an attempt to slow him down and soften his landing. However this didn't work quite as he had expected and ended up with him hitting the ground and then rolling a few times before coming to a stop on the other side of the platform.

"Don't worry about the landings. I wasn't very good when I started either. But it will come with time." Spyro came over and helped Zach to his feet.

"Thanks. Now lets get going before I start thinking to much and forget how to fly."

"Where are we going again exactly?"

"Up the Silver River to a large cliff face with a water fall"

"I still don't know what cliff your talking about."

Zach looked out towards the direction they were going to be headed. Large storm clouds and a shroud of mist covered everything in that direction. No wonder they couldn't see it from here. "Believe me, its there."

"Ok then. Let's set off." Spyro was getting very impatient. You could see that every part of him wanted to be on the way already. Nothing was going to stop him or slow him down from saving Cynder.

All three dragons took off from the outside platform of the temple, with Zach in the lead on shaky wings.

Cynder drifted back into consciousness. She didn't know how long she had been out. She barely knew what was going on. All she knew was that she was in trouble and that she felt like crap. Cynder tried to clear her head. The pain was clouding her thoughts. She had to focus; she needed to be ready for whatever was going to happen. Cynder shifted to a position where the pain was less noticeable. She needed to keep conscious. She had to figure out some way out of here. She didn't know how much longer she could hold out. Cynder tried to raise her head, but it was no use. Maybe if she could get some sleep… some real sleep, she could think clearly. Cynder closed her eyes, but as she did she heard footsteps come down the hall and the guard outside scramble to his feet.

Cynder tried to turn her head to see who it was. But before she could she was kicked in the side and sent sprawling across the room. Cynder cried out in pain.

"You have been the source of my trouble all day, do you know that? And since you've made my life hell, I'm going to do the same to you."

"What did I ever do to you?"

The ape looked at Cynder with a snarl on his face "You existed, that's what you did. If I had it my way you would be dead by now. But lucky for you master wants you alive, who knows why. You've been a great pain to him as of late."

"Who are you talking about? Who is your master?"

"Oh you'll find out soon enough. He wants to talk to you later tonight, so as much as I would like to kill you know, I will just have to wait."

"What does he want with me"

"I don't know. He's so secretive with his plans now, won't tell anyone what he's doing. I think he's gone crazy, wont…" The ape snapped back to attention. "But I've said too much already… you'll just have to wait to find out. I just came to tell you what to expect."

"But you haven't told me anything"

"That's the point now isn't it. Humph… I still don't understand why you haven't given up yet… there is no hope of anyone saving you." The ape turned his back to Cynder and pulled something out of his pocket. Cynder expected the green gem she had seen multiple times now, but he chain never shifted. "You know, we can make you join us, it's just that the master wants you to come of your own free will." When the ape turned he had a red snake coiled around his arm. "Beautiful isn't it, only one of them was made before Malefore died, it is much like the one you have around your neck now, except it is much stronger. Instead of simply restraining the person its on, this little wonder taps into the persons nervous system and brain, effectively making the person a puppet to be commanded by the creator." Cynder looked in horror at the red snake, surely it couldn't do what the ape had said, nothing could be that strong. But even then she could feel the great power within the device. As the ape turned and walked towards her, Cynder backed into a corner. "It was originally intended for Spyro, it was made shortly after you two were broken out of the crystal and was intended to be used while you were in captivity. With both Spyro and you under his control, Malefore would have been unstoppable."

The ape continued "but seeing as how you foiled that plan, and Spyro is now dead, the only person left to use it on is you Cynder." The ape held the snake in front of Cynder's face and brought it up so Cynder was staring into its eyes. The snake seemed to come alive as it started to sway back and for the in front of Cynder as if preparing to strike. The snake shot out to wrap around Cynder's neck, but the ape caught it before it could leave his hand. "Fortunately for you, Master has forbidden me to use it on you…"

The ape turned to leave the room, leaving Cynder collapsed and shaken in the corner, was there any hope left, what could she do to get out of this place, after all, someone should have found her by now, how long had it been anyway, she didn't even know.

As the ape left the room he stopped in the doorway with a smirk on his face "…yet"

"Who are you?"

"All you need to know about me, Cynder, is that I am your worst enemy." And with that Cynder was once again alone in her cell, with more to think about than she could handle.

"Down over there" Zach pointed to a clearing near the base of the waterfall. It surprised him how much faster he had gotten here while flying. What had taken him almost six hours on foot took less then thirty minutes in the air, and that was with him barely able to control his flight. All three dragons flew down to the clearing. Spyro and Terador made easy landing in the small clearing. But Zach, knowing how bad his landing was, opted to land in the shallow end of the reservoir around the edge of the clearing. Zach pulled in his wings and landed with a big splash.

"Zach!" Spyro ran over to the edge of the water.

"Zach surfaced spraying water droplets everywhere. " What?"

"Don't you know how dangerous that is, you could have drowned."

"Relax, it shallow there, and I t makes for a softer landing then crashing into the ground."

"You still shouldn't do that, you should know how dangerous the water is."

Zach cocked an eyebrow. "Umm… ok. Whatever. But you can lecture me later. I want to get out of this place ASAP."

"What?" This time it was Spyro that was confused.

"ASAP, you know A-S-A-P, as soon as possible."

"Never heard it before."

Zach chaste himself in his head. He couldn't use anything that would show he wasn't from around here. That meant movie quotes, idioms, foreign languages, and the like. Zach almost laughed to himself as he thought in his head. "I wonder if they can speak Spanish"

"Are you sure we're in the right spot Zach? I don't see anything around here."

"Yes I'm sure, is there any other mile high cliff with a waterfall within a fifty mile radius… I don't think so."

Terador looked up the cliff face. "Who would have thought that this was here all this time, hidden by the mist."

Zach wondered how you could not notice a huge cliff face, even if it was shrouded in mist. Wouldn't someone have noticed the change in weather, or at least flown near enough to it to notice, it wasn't more than a half-hour flight right to the face of the cliff.

Spyro, who was getting more impatient by the second, interrupted Zach's thoughts. "There's nothing here! You lied to us. There's no cave, no apes, and no Cynder. You better give me a good reason why we shouldn't just leave you here."

"Slow down Spyro. This is the right place. And I have two reasons as to why. One, I was right about the huge cliff wasn't I?"

The tension in Spyro eases a little as he considered what Zach said. " I suppose… but…"

"And two… the cave is in the cliff, not out here. There's a path that goes behind the waterfall, we follow it to get to where were going." Zach stopped for a second. "Spyro, I don't know you. But I do know you care for Cynder. But even then, you can't let you emotions fuel your actions. I don't know if it's my place to say this, but you need to get a handle on your emotions, if you let them control you, your going to do something rash or stupid and get into more trouble than your already in.

Spyro stood in shock, but as the initial blow of Zach's statement wore off Spyro seemed to mellow out, realizing the truth in Zach's statement. "I… I guess your right."

Spyro was not the only one that was stunned by the statement. Zach was shocked that he had just been able to do that. While he barely knew Spyro. He had essentially slapped him in the face, and it hadn't had any repercussions. And what he had said… it had made sense. What had come over him?

Terador just sat back and watched their conversation unfold. This new dragon was a good thing. While he didn't know where he had come from, or why here was here. He knew one thing. Watching how he interacted with Spyro had proven it to him. This could prove to be very interesting.

"Hmm… as iron sharpens iron."

Spyro looked up from where he was standing. "What was that Terador?"

"Oh nothing Spyro… So Zach, where are we going. You've gotten us this far."

Zach and Spyro both shook themselves out of the daze they were in. "Uh yeah… this way" Zach led them to the spot in the cliff face where he had first found the path. And fortunately for him it was still there.

Fortunately for all of them they did not run into any patrol or such on their way up the path. Unfortunately they did run into another problem, when the path started to turn into a cave near the waterfall.

"Well I suppose you two will have to go on without me."

Zach turned around from where he was ahead of Terador on the path. "Woah, hey, what?"

Spyro turned around as well. "Yeah Terador what are you talking about?"

"I'm afraid that I can not fit through here. I am much larger than you two and cant get through this tunnel. But you two need to continue on. I'll wait here for you when you get back."

Zach started back towards Terador. "Maybe I should stay here with Terador. I can just tell you where to find Cynder and…"

"No! You need to go with Spyro. It's safer if you go together, and you have skills that might be needed."

Zach stopped again. Terador was right. Ugh. He hated it when logic was used against him. As much as he didn't want to trek back into the caves, what Terador said made sense… again. "Alright, come on Spyro we still have a way to go." Zach started his walk back into the caves.

Spyro spoke to Terador before following. "Should we really trust him this much? He could be luring me into a trap."

"Easy Spyro, you have nothing to fear from him right now. I can see he just wants to do what is right. He reminds me of another young dragon I know…"

"What?" Spyro shook his head. "Ok Terador, ill trust him for now. You stay safe out here"

"Its more you that I am worried about Spyro"

With that Spyro followed Zach into the caves.

As Zach and Spyro walked farther away from Terador, it struck Zach how awkward it was to be walking alone with Spyro. He had only known this dragon for less than a half hour and he was now on a quest to walk through caves, potentially fight apes, and rescue Spyro's girlfriend (whether Spyro would actually admit to that part Zach wasn't sure). Zach laughed to himself, he had been in this world for less than a day and so much weird stuff had happened to him already, nothing really shocked him anymore. It would seem normal that a giant chicken lived somewhere in these caves. Well… he better be careful what he wished for, because it might come true in this bizarre world.

Zach looked over at Spyro. He walked looking straight forward, scanning the area ahead. He had this air about him. Not cocky, but determined. He was going to get this job done no matter what. He had been through so much in his life already. The poor guy couldn't seem to ever get a break. It was amazing that Spyro had trusted him at all, Zach didn't think that he would have.

"Hey Spyro, I wanted to thank you… for trusting me. And I'm sorry for going after you like that outside."

"No, that's ok. I needed to hear that. Your right tough, my emotions have caused me problems on more than one occasion." The two dragons walked side by side in silence for a few seconds.

"You love her don't you."

"What?"

"You love her, Cynder."

Spyro started to stammer as he answered. "I… Uh… well I suppose that…"

"Nevermind Spyro." Zach chuckled to himself. Spyro wore his heart on his sleeve, especially when it came to Cynder. Zach and Spyro walked in silence for a while again.

"So you seem to know a lot about me Zach, but I know nothing about you. So where do you come from, and why did you come here?"

Zach had been dreading this question ever since he had decided to go find help at the temple. What was he going to answer that he came from some other world where dragons were just a myth? Even though this place was weird, he didn't think anyone would believe him. Maybe he could get some answers before he had to answer that question. For now he should keep where he came from a secret, but he could answer some of Spyro's other questions truthfully. "I don't remember where I came from, or why I'm here, I don't really remember anything past the last few days. That's why I came to the temple to find help."

"But how did you know to come to the temple if you needed help?"

"I asked around, some villagers told me about it and pointed me in the right direction" Zach couldn't help but feel horrible inside, he was telling the partial truth, but the part that he wasn't telling was eating at him. He just knew this was going to come back to bite him. But it couldn't be helped right now.

"What kind of villagers?"

"Dragonflies, they acted like they'd never seen a dragon before."

Spyro perked up a bit. "Was one of them yellow, talkative, and really annoying?"

"No, not that I remember" as Spyro lost a little enthusiasm, Zach remembered why Spyro would be so interested. He was sure Sparks was ok somewhere and it was probably a good thing he wasn't here right now. Zach thought about saying something, but letting Spyro know he knew about Sparks would only dig him deeper in his hole.

"We should probably keep quiet from here on in. The sound might carry through the caves, and the last thing I want is to run into some apes."

Zach and Spyro walked into the large cave that Zach knew well by now. Just as he remembered it. They had walked in on the same side that Zach had the first time, which made sense since they had taken the same path. Various holes in the cave led to different passages that stretched to who knows where, except for the large center passage that they would take to the center cavern. And on their right, the waterfall was visible through the opening of the cave. Zach shuddered as he remembered his last trip out of here; he wanted to avoid that if all possible.

"What?"

"Let's just say the last time I left this room, it wasn't in the manner I would have liked."

"What do you mean?"

"See the waterfall over there?"

"Yeah"

"I know for a fact it's a straight fall from here to the bottom of the cliff."

"You jumped out through there?"

"Yes, and it wasn't a fun ride."

"So where are we going now"

"Down through there." Zach pointed to the center passage. "If we follow that straight through, we should end up near where Cynder is being held."

"Then lets get going."

Zach and Spyro walked down the passage. As they were walking they started to hear lots of footsteps and an occasional grunt coming from somewhere in the tunnels. Zach looked over at Spyro, who nodded. Whoever it was chances were that they weren't going to be friendly. Fortunately they were still far enough away to not be a problem; they may be able to slip by them without a problem. Zach and Spyro continued to walk down the passage, but as the footsteps got louder, it became obvious that avoiding them was not going to be an option. Spyro and Zach stopped in the next large cave they found, it had only two exits, where they had just came from, and where the patrol was coming from. Zach immediately started scanning the area for someplace to hide. The best option was behind some rocks along one side of the cave. It wouldn't completely hide him from anyone looking at him, but it was out of the way and he could cloak the parts of himself that were uncovered. As Zach went over and hunkered down behind the rocks, he turned to see Spyro still standing in the center of the cave.

Zach shouted in a hoarse whisper. "Spyro what are you doing. We have to hide before the apes get here."

"No way, I've never let a few apes stand in my way and there's no way I'm going to start now."

"It's not that I don't think that you can take them, but what if they raise an alarm before you can get all of them. Do you know how much harder that will make things for us, they will put even more guards on Cynder, they might even move her, and we cant afford to go searching around this place for her."

The footsteps were even closer now and conversations could be heard through the tunnels

"Well what do you expect me to do."

"Hide first, if don't see us, great. If they do, then you can go to town on them, you won't be down anything for trying it."

Spyro growled in frustration, as much as he wanted to get rid of these apes, what Zach said had made sense. Spyro raced over to where Zach was hiding behind the rocks. Zach started to bend the light over the exposed parts of their bodies just as the first apes walked into the cave. He didn't know if he could do it around other people, but now was as good of a time to try it as ever.

The apes walked into the room in a lazy double file line. Some of them dragging their weapons on the ground, others in casual conversation with comrades. They weren't as much patrolling as taking a stroll throughout the caves. Most of them didn't even bother to look around. But some others took quick glances around the outsides of the cave, most of them glancing over or not even looking at their position. However, one ape in particular looked straight at where Zach and Spyro were hiding. Zach felt Spyro tense up ready to spring at the ape, but before he could do anything to restrain him, the ape looked away and Spyro relaxed again. Zach released the light he was bending as soon as the apes were out of the cave, but the two dragons stayed in their hiding spot until the footsteps faded away, and all he they could hear was their own hoarse breathing. Spyro was the first one to speak.

"There long gone now."

"I think your right let's go."

The two dragons resumed their long walk through the passages. Whenever they came to a split in the passage or a room with multiple passages out, they would take the path that was the straightest shot from the one they had entered from, or the path that was the largest. Using this strategy, they managed to avoid any other patrols, and end up in the exact same place that Zach had first entered the giant cavern.

Spyro whistled as he looked over the vast complex. "You weren't kidding."

"What? You mean you didn't believe me when I said there was a in underground cave filled with apes?" Zach stopped, "yeah, never mind that does sound crazy, even standing here."

Zach and Spyro moved over behind some rocks on a ledge that gave them an overview of the compound. It was just as Zach had remembered. The structure in the center resembled a large castle, mush like one you would picture from mediaeval times. The castle surrounded an open courtyard in the middle, littered with training dummies and targets. Flickering torches were the only source of light in the cavern, giving everything an eerie orange glow. The only difference from the last time was that there were apes, lots and lots of apes. There was no way that they were going to be able to just walk in like Zach had the first time.

"So where are we going?"

"See that opening there, along in the far wall." Zach pointed, "last time that window was in Cynder's cell, hopefully all we will have to do is just get in it like I did last time"

Spyro got up and started to move out into view.

"Woah! Spyro where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going! I'm going to get Cynder!"

"And you're going to bash your way through how many apes to get there? Do you really think that you can get through all of them, get Cynder, and get all the way back out by yourself?"

"I'm not by my self, I have you."

"What part of 'I can't fight' didn't you understand earlier."

"Well I'm going anyway...."

"Spyro wait," Zach grabbed his arm. "Just listen to me for a second. I have no idea whether you can take them or not. If you can… great. But think what will happen if you can't, or even if take too long to defeat them."

Spyro stopped pulling against Zach and settled down. Zach continued "all I want you to do is to try to do this quietly first. Ok?"

"Ok"

Zach and Spyro crept quietly along the outside of the castle. Taking care to press against the outside wall of the cave and to stay in the shadows. As they were walking Zach looked at the gatherings of apes. They all seemed to be casually standing around the courtyard; none of them really seemed to be standing guard. This could be a good thing. Zach and Spyro ended up behind the same patch of rocks that Zach had found earlier. Zach could even see scratches on the ground from where his claws marked them earlier.

"Ok. Last time she was in that window just over there."

"Ok. Lets go then."

"Alright, you want to go first, or should I?"

"You go first, that way I can watch your back"

"Ok then." Zach paused and looked over at their destination. "Don't worry Spyro I'm sure she's alright, she can take care of herself, and we'll get her out of here in a minute, right."

"Right."

"See you again over there then"

Spyro watched as Zach disappeared before his eyes. How he wished he could do that, it would make this so much easier… Spyro watched the space in-between his hiding place and the window in the wall for several uneasy moments, watching for apes to come from either side. After what seemed like eternity, Zach appeared before the window, turned and raised one wing in the direction of Spyro, then disappeared inside. Spyro sighed, it was his turn now, and he would have to make the distance alone in full view of anyone who could be looking at the time. Spyro took some time to calm himself down before he started. He was full of mixed emotions. What would he find when he went in that room? Would he find Cynder, or was it wild goose chase. And if he did find Cynder, would she be ok, he couldn't imagine what he would do if she were… And the apes, they had been chasing and fighting him since the day that he learned he was a dragon. He'd like to give each of them a piece of his mind…

But Zach was right, he needed to keep his emotions in check, his emotions influenced his powers in ways he didn't think were possible. Whatever he felt was reflected in his powers. It could cause miraculous things to happen, but it had also caused terrible things as well. Spyro took another moment to calm himself, he would be ready for anything that faced him in that room, well almost. Spyro took one last check to make sure no one was in view, and sprinted from his hiding place.

Zach dropped down into the cell again, just as he remembered. Dark, damp, gloomy, and with a black blob in the center. As Zach's eyes adjusted to the light the dark blob became the form of Cynder, although he had expected that. But as his eyes adjusted further he saw something he hadn't expected. Long jagged cuts and gashes ran the length of he body, her wing membranes were shredded into strips, and she was lying on a pool of her own blood.

"Oh god…"

Zach ran over and immediately placed his hand next to her throat, at least he learned something from health class. She had to be alive. Zach placed his ear to her chest and heard a faint throbbing that matched the pulse he felt in his hand. Zach let out a sigh of relief, she was alive.

"Spyro?"

"Good to se your still with us."

"Who..?"

"Hey, stay quiet we need to get out of here. Now let me see if I can do anything about those wounds."

"Ignitus?"

Zach let out a nervous laugh. "Wrong again."

Cynder lifted her head off the ground and turned it towards Zach. Her eyes were glassed over and she blinked a few times before the recognition showed in her eyes. "Zach?"

"There you go, now hold still, I need to heal you so we can get out of here."

"Heal me? How?"

"Long story, but you need to be quiet, we got in here unseen so we might still be able to sneak out unnoticed."

"We? Where's Spyro?"

"He will be here in a second" at least he should be… Zach looked back out the window, something must have held him up, and that meant trouble. "Now hold still, were going to have to move once he gets here."

Cynder lay her head on the ground and closed her eyes, she would be ok. But Spyro wasn't going to be very happy to see her like this. As Zach went to start on Cynder, he started to hear sounds of a struggle outside. Grunts, moans, and growls came through the sound of feet scuffing against the ground. Zach turned back to the window just as Spyro dove through it from the other side. As soon as Spyro hit the ground he turned and shot something form his mouth, slamming against the wall above the window, causing it to collapse.

"What was that?"

"There were too many of them out there, we will have to find another way out."

"Well that make things more difficult."

"Yeah…" Spyro scanned the room in anticipation, looking for Cynder, confusion written all over his face when he could not find her. "Where's Cynder?"

Zach realized that he was standing directly between Spyro and Cynder. Zach looked back at Cynder, he hadn't had time to do anything for her yet, but he couldn't keep Spyro waiting any longer. Zach backed out of the way.

Spyro followed Zach's gaze to where Cynder was lying on the ground. "Cynder!" Spyro rushed over to her. "Cynder tell me your ok…"

"It's ok Spyro, she's still alive, and stable, just unconscious. I'm not sure how much I can do for her, but I'll try to get her on her feet again. We need to get out of here fast, apes are probably already on their way"

Spyro draped his head over Cynder's body, "oh, Cynder, who did this to you and why…"

As if to answer Spyro's question, Zach heard multiple sets of footsteps running down the hall, this was not good. They were trapped, and only one of them could fight and he was almost drained. But they would put up a fight. After almost getting killed twice and seeing what they did to Cynder, there was no option of surrender. It was all or nothing.

But Spyro had other plans, getting up from next to Cynder. Spyro walked out through the doorway and planted himself in the center of the hall. Zach was terrified by the Spyro's anger, it permeated the air and the stress was visible throughout his body, but the most frightening thing was the orange-red aura that had started to form around Spyro's body. Zach could feel the energy being drawn from the air and collecting around Spyro. This was going to be big.

Vaguely remembering something from his dreams, Zach realized that this wasn't just going to be big, it was going to be huge. "Oh crap!" Zach ran back into the cell and threw himself over Cynder just as the apes turned the corner to face a really pissed off dragon. A massive explosion ripped through the cell, showing Zach with chunks of debris as he tried to cover Cynder from the shrapnel. Zach could feel the heat from Spyro's attack, but it didn't burn him or Cynder in any way.

Zach stood up coughing in a cloud of dust and smoke, he couldn't see anything in the could of dust that Spyro had kicked up. As the dust settled, Zach began to see the outline of the room and the newly enlarged doorway that led out into the hall. As his vision sharpened Zach saw scorch marks all along the inside of the cell, as well as a ten foot wide black ring encircling Spyro, Zach had no idea what happened to the apes.

Spyro came walking back into the room. "Is there anything you can do for Cynder?"

Zach just stood in shock, all that power, and Spyro was as god as new.

"Is there anything you can do for Cynder?!?"

Zach snapped himself out of his daze. "Yea, just give me a second." Zach walked back over to Cynder. She was so broken, there was no way he could completely heal her, or even get close, the most he could do was try to get her on her feet again. Zach started the process he had already done many times that day, placing his had on Cynder and starting to breath over her wounds. It was so new to him, yet it felt so natural, like he had done it all his life.

Zach tried to concentrate on the areas that needed the most attention, including her neck, legs, side, and wings. All of which were seriously wounded. Zach completely healed her side and neck, as the areas were vital, and concentrated on other areas that involved movement, she was going to have to help walk herself out of here so it might as well be as painless as possible. Zach cringed when he started to focus on her wings. They were stripped to ribbons, there was no way she could fly and they would cause her great pain if she moved, but he needed the energy for other areas and she wouldn't be flying any time soon anyway so Zach resigned himself to just stitching the membranes back together. Zach pushed himself farther then he should have to get Cynder as much help as possible, draining himself of most of his physical energy as well as the energy used for his powers.

"Isn't there anything more you can do for her?"

"It's either this, or you're dragging two dragons out of this cave by yourself."

Spyro walked over to Cynder again. "Cynder, Cynder can you hear me?"

"Hmm…" Cynder stirred lifting her head off the grounding and blinking her eyes, "Spyro, is it really you, is it really you this time?"

"Yes it is, It's me Cynder," Spyro and Cynder booth broke into tears over each other, sobbing just that they were together again. Zach, who was watching this, was also on the verge of tears, but was holding them back thinking to himself that guys don't cry especially over things like this.

After a few minutes, they stopped, and Spyro was the first one to speak. "Come on Cynder, were here to get you out of here, so let's go."

Cynder, who had pushed herself onto all fours by now started to get up, but stopped herself. "I thought Zach would have told you, I can't get out of here, I'm chained to this gem." As if on cue, the collar around Cynder's neck flashed and the rope became visible again.

Spyro looked softly at Cynder. "I came all this way to get you. Do you really think that something as trivial as this would stop me?" Spyro reached out with one talon and grasped the magical rope. As Spyro looked at Cynder, his hand grasping the rope flashed a deep purple. The rope then flashed as well and started to dissolve starting by Spyro's hand and working its way towards Cynder till it reached her collar, which shattered into thousands of small green crystals.

Zach let out an annoyed groan. "And you told me you didn't think it was possible, while here you just did it in five seconds trying to do I don't know what." Zach shook his head, "oh well, I'm not trying to complain, that less time we have to spend in this room and more we have to get out of here."

"Right, let's get out of here."

Cynder got up and leaned against Spyro, using him as support as she limped though the doorway, Zach followed behind. As the walked down the hall, Zach got a clear glimpse as to what had actually happened in the hallway. Around where Spyro had stood there was a ten-foot wide ring of charred rock that extended up the walls and across the ceiling. Outside of the ring there was a line of broken rock, about five feet up on the wall that extended all the way down the hall on both sided, presumably caused by the shock wave. But the most shocking thing was not the damage to the hall, but what happened to the apes. There was nothing within ten feet of the charred circle, no bodies, no armor, no nothing. As they continued walking, Zach started to notice pieces of metal armor, most of which were partially melted. Further down the hall there were pieces of clothing, but still no bodies. Zach didn't find one, what was left of one anyway, till the turned a corned in the hallway, a good fifty feet from the center of the charred circle. The bottom half of the body had been burned away, Zach had to turn his head.

"Remind me NEVER to tick you off Spyro"

They walked in silence for a few minutes, moving as fast as Cynder's injuries would allow, taking turns and trudging down hallways. Zach couldn't tell if they were headed deeper in to the castle or out into the open. Zach walked the hallways in silence. Sometimes thinking about the pair of dragons ahead of him, what kind of a bond they must share, what they went through. But mostly he thought of himself and the questions that still bounced around in his head. Why was he here, so far he hadn't been very helpful to anyone, he felt like he was just getting in the way. Was he even supposed to be here? Maybe this was just a huge mistake. And how would he get home… would he ever be able to go home? Well maybe he could finally get some answers once they got back to the temple, that is if they go out of here.

They turned a last corner and Zach could tell they were almost out. The light changed outside of one of the doors and the temperature was cooling down. They had to be close. Either Spyro had an impeccable sense of direction or they had gotten lucky, Zach was just glad they were almost out of this creepy castle. But who knew what was waiting for them on the other side, they hadn't even seen a trace of an ape since they had encountered them outside the cell, which seemed very odd to Zach.

"Hey Spyro wait up."

Spyro stopped where he was up ahead helping Cynder, they had been talking quietly to each other since they found each other, Zach couldn't tell what they were talking about, and he didn't want to know either. It was best to give them their space right now. "What is it Zach?"

"Don't you think its odd that we haven't seen a single ape since we walked out of the cell. I mean where did they all go?"

"Yeah I noticed it too. There probably waiting for us somewhere."

"Like up ahead?" Zach motioned towards the door in front of them"

"Yeah like up there"

"Well what are we going to do? None of us can use any powers and you're the only one of us that can fight."

Cynder broke into the conversation, "What about you Zach? Spyro and I could take a bunch of apes by ourselves, you and Spyro should be able to get this easy"

Zach shook his head, "not exactly, it's a long story, but what it boils down to is that I can't fight… at all…"

Cynder had a surprised look on her face

"What? You think I'm kidding? No I seriously can't fight." Zach let out a heavy sigh. "So what are we going to do about the apes when we find them. We can't run, we can't hide, and we can't stand and fight."

"I don't know Zach. Lets just hope we don't run into them. But if we do find them, I want you to take Cynder and get out of here."

"What?" Cynder protested, "there is no way I am leaving you again, not now, not so soon."

"I hope it doesn't come down to it either, but if it does I want you to be ready."

"No way!" Cynder got up by herself and started to limp towards the door, as if to make a statement that she was not going to run away.

Spyro looked at Zach for a moment and nodded before going up aside Cynder to help her. Zach understood, even if he didn't like the idea either. If it came down to it, he was going to get Cynder out of here, even if she didn't want it.

Spyro and Cynder stopped just inside the exit. This touched Zach. What they were going to do, they were going to do together, at least they trusted him that much. They all walked out the door together.

But they walked out unopposed.

Zach looked around outside "ok… so no apes in the castle, dungeon place, none in the halls, and none outside. Where did they all go?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that they haven't left. Keep your eyes open."

The trio kept walking words the exit tunnel that would take them back to where Terador was waiting, ever step straining Zach's nerve, him expecting an attack at every step. But it never came while they were walking out the door of the castle, it never came when they were walking across the courtyard, and it never came as they started to walk into the connected tunnel system. It was if the entire place had turned into a ghost town in the five minutes they had spent in Cynder's cell.

Spyro led them back up the set of passages that they had used earlier, taking various turns and stopping on some occasions to decide on a passage. Eventually they came to a passage that had been blocked by falling rocks.

"Hmm… the path we used is blocked, we'll have to find another way around…" Spyro looked around for a different passage to take that would lead them in the same direction that they needed to go. He eventually settled on an adjacent passage that curved slightly to the left.

Zach didn't protest. While he thought going off the path wasn't the best idea, he didn't see another way, so he followed in silence. They walked down the new passage until they came to a new cavern. This cavern was much like all the other ones in the caverns, but this one had two of the three passages blocked off with what looked like a rock slide, forcing them to follow the their path. After walking down the new passage they came to another passage with similar results, all but one of the passages were blocked off in some way or another. Zach didn't like this, someone was directing them. Once was a shock, twice was a coincidence, but these passages were blocked for a reason. They were being led somewhere, but where? Zach had an idea that it would lead them into the "missing" apes.

"Spyro…"

Spyro looked back at Zach and nodded, he was thinking the same thing, but it was best not to talk and give away the fact that thew were coming. The dragons followed the path into the next passage. But this passage was different, instead of staying narrow with a low ceiling, it broadened out and the ceiling raised to almost double height. But the most concerning thing about this particular passage was that it looked like they were walking in a head high rut in the ground, right between two ledges. Perfect place for an ambush. Zach started to look around for any signs of attack, a reflection off armor, an odd smell, an off sound, but couldn't discern anything. He was about to tell Spyro of his findings but when he looked ahead he could tell Spyro already knew. Every muscle in Spyro's body was tense and ready for action, his head swiveling to take in his surroundings. Cynder even looked ready and determined, walking completely by herself even though Zach could tell it caused her a great deal of pain. They walked in silence, waiting for an attack.

There was no warning, all of the sudden multiple apes jumped down from the ledge, some jumping up in front of the group, others behind, and two landing between Zach and Spyro and Cynder. Spyro immediately sprang to action, charging the first ape in front of him, somehow shattering his armor and knocking him to the ground, either unconscious or dead. Spyro then turned and engaged the remaining apes in front of him, but Zach didn't have much time to watch him, he had his own problems to worry about.

There were multitudes of apes behind Zach, but they were still a ways away, his real problems were the two apes between him and Spyro and Cynder. This was the first time Zach had a chance to get a good look at his attacker. It was an ape, much like all the other ones he had seen today, but this one was covered in slate black metal armor, making him very difficult to see against the background of the cave walls. The ape nearest to him held a sword while the one behind him held a sword and shield. But Zach didn't have much time to scrutinize his enemy either, as the ape soon growled and raised a sword to attack him and charged. Zach dropped to the ground to avoid the swing that was aimed to take off his head and rolled out of the way. After getting back on his feet he found himself between the two apes, in no better position than where he had started. The apes took up positions surrounding Zach, the one brandishing a shield attempting to push Zach up against the wall where he would have no room to maneuver. Zach knew he wouldn't stand a chance if he was pushed in the corner, so the next time the ape trust the shield at Zach, he turned and aimed a well placed kick to the center of the shield. Zach almost cried out as the reverberations ran up his leg, he was lucky he hadn't broke it with such a stupid move, but either the power from his kick, or the shock from someone actually kicking a shield, knocked the ape off balance. This gave Zach enough time to duck around the ape and deliver another well placed kick to the ape's side, knocking him over into the ape behind him, playing soccer really came in handy sometimes.

Zach raced up to where Spyro and Cynder were fighting, stepping around or jumping over the occasional ape body. Spyro had pushed the apes back into a part of the passage where the rut widened out into a small circular room. Spyro and Cynder were standing with their backs to an exit passage with the apes pushed against the opposing wall. Spyro was fighting the occasional ape that attempted to charge him, while Cynder stood back and growled threateningly at any ape that came her way.

"What's the hold up? Shouldn't we get out of here."

Spyro yelled back between breaks in the fighting. "Well we were waiting for you, and Cynder won't leave."

Cynder yelled back at Spyro, " I told you I'm not leaving without you."

Spyro yelled back, addressing Zach, "get her out of here, ill catch up with you later…"

Zach turned to Cynder, "come on, we need to get you out of here…"

"No I'm not leaving without Spyro."

"Look I don't want to leave him as much as you do… but you are in no condition to fight right now, it will be better if Spyro doesn't have to worry about us while he is fighting… now lets go." Zach started to gently push Cynder towards the exit, but still allowed her to use him as support. Cynder, who was too weak to protest, had no choice but to follow.

Zach and Cynder walked down the hall as fast as Zach thought it was safe to push Cynder, they needed to get he to safety, that's why they had came here in the first place. Zach occasionally looked over his shoulder to see what was happening. At first it had seemed like Spyro wasn't having any trouble, but once the apes that had been behind Zach finally caught up, they surrounded Spyro, making it very difficult for Spyro to fight apes, and watch his back at the same time. After that the fight got progressively worse, with the apes starting to score numerous small hits against Spyro's arms and legs. Zach had to do something, but what? Spyro would kill him if he let anything happen to Cynder. But then again, Cynder would probably kill him too if anything happened to Spyro, he really couldn't win in this situation. Zach made up his mind.

Zach helped Cynder over against the wall and helped her lay down.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to help Spyro, do you think you can handle yourself?"

"I thought you said you couldn't fight."

"I did, and I still cant, but I have to do something."

Zach turned and sprinted back down the passage, they had made it a good hundred yards from where Spyro was fighting the apes. As he was running he though he head Cynder shout something after him, but he couldn't tell what. As Zach was running he noticed an ape sneaking up behind Spyro, but Spyro was too engaged with another ape to notice. Another fifty yards to go, the ape inched closer to Spyro, Zach had to get there in time, Spyro was still to busy with the other ape. Forty yards, the ape pulled out a long gagged dagger, Spyro was still oblivious, Zach pushed himself harder. Thirty yards, the ape was almost close enough to strike at Spyro who was still engaged, Zach put everything he had into his sprint. Twenty-five years, the ape was close enough to get to get Spyro who still had his back turned, Zach could see the dagger shaking with anticipation, Zach tried to call out but his lungs wouldn't work. Fifteen yards, the ape raised his dagger, he wasn't going to make it in time, the ape stopped at the pinnacle of his swing, he wasn't going to make it, it was too late.

"Noooo!!!!!!"

Still at least ten yards from the ape, Zach opened his mouth, letting lose a massive streak of white light. The light streaked across the distance, slamming into the ape and throwing it against the far wall. Everyone stopped, shocked at what had just happened; no one had seen anything like it. Spyro took advantage of this to finish off the ape he was fighting and bolt though the rest of the group into the tunnel with Zach. The apes then snapped back into attention and started to chase Zach and Spyro into the tunnel.

"Zach… what was that?"

Zach answered between pants, "I… don't really… know… I was hoping… you could tell me"

"Well whatever it was it worked"

Zach looked back at the apes. Something wasn't right, they had stopped chasing them, and one had something in his hand… something that looked a lot like… A detonator! What was going on? Maybe Zach had seen it wrong. But sure enough an ape was holding an old style plunger detonator. Zach watched as the ape pushed down the trigger. Why? Why was this messed up world trying to kill him?

It started as a dull thud, but gradually grew louder. Zach heard a series of explosions trigger somewhere behind him. but they weren't in the passage he was in, but they were in the passages surrounding it. Zach and Spyro ran on, Zach starting to fall behind Spyro from exhaustion. The explosions started to catch up to them the dull thuds becoming resounding bangs and the walls and floors starting to shake. Zach pushed himself harder, he needed to catch up with Spyro, they were almost to Cynder, who had gotten up and had a terrified look on her face. The explosions finally caught up to Zach, turning the tunnel into a massive jumble of explosions and reverberations, the explosions seeming to come from everywhere. Zach was forced to stop when a large crevice opened up in the floor after on of the explosions. Zach prepared to jump over it, but stopped as rocks started to fall from the ceiling after another explosion. Zach was forced to take cover under a stable part of the wall. Through the falling derbies Zach could see Spyro and Cynder on the other side, Spyro trying to come back. But as soon as Spyro would try to come back, something else would fall in his way, forcing him to take cover or dive out of the way.

"No Spyro, get out of here"

Spyro stopped and gave Zach a blank stare.

"Get out of here, I can find another way out…"

Spyro stared at Zach through the cascade of falling rocks, which had started to pile up. Zach could tell that he wanted to do more, but there was noting he could do anymore. "Go!" Through the wall of debris that was piling up in between them, Zach saw Spyro slowly turn back to Cynder. The last he saw of them, they were running out of the cave together.

Zach huddled in the corner until the cascade of rocks finally stopped. When the dust cleared he found the passage in front of him blocked, and the only way out was back through the apes. Zach turned back around. The apes had started to make their way towards him, with as many apes fit across the hallway as possible. Zach looked for another way out, but there was none. There was only one way out, through a bunch of angry apes. Zach tried to call up some power, anything. But he was too worn out. Every one of Zach's muscles ached. Zach knew he had no chance of getting through the apes, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

Zach tried to rush in between two of the closest apes, but got the shaft of a spear across the back for his attempt, sending him against the wall. Zach tried to get to his feet, but was kicked in the side again. As darkness started to could his vision, Zach waited helplessly to see what the apes would do next. The last thing he saw was the closest ape raise his sword above his head…

Spyro and Cynder weaved their way though different passages, trying to find there way out of the maze of passages. As they scrambled along, Spyro could feel Cynder sobbing quietly beside him. She had been through so much… too much… and having Zach get separated from them had been too much for her. They may not have known him well, but he had helped save Cynder. Spyro hoped he got out ok.

After many twist and turns, Spyro and Cynder somehow ended up in the same chamber that Zach and Spyro had entered first, the one with the opening to the waterfall. They should be home free now, all they needed to do was get out the last passage to where Terador was hopefully waiting. The two dragons limped their way over to the last passage, Spyro started to se the light filtering through from the outside world. Finally they limped out into the cool night air, the moons casting a glow over the whole landscape. Thankfully Terador was waiting there for him, exactly where they had left him.

"Spyro, Cynder, your ok… I was starting to think that…" Terador looked around and behind Spyro, "Where's Zach?"

Spyro helped Cynder lay down, where she immediately passed out. "We got separated from him, he's still in the caves… I have to go back for him." Spyro turned around and started to go back into the caverns.

"No Spyro wait," Terador caught Spyro with one of his claws, but drew back his had to examine it. "Spyro, your hurt!"

Spyro looked back over himself, the numerous small nicks that he had accumulated during his fights turned out to be more serious than he though, some widening from the stress, and others bleeding out profusely. "Terador, I need to go back for him, I'm fine…" But Spyro was not fine. His vision started to blur and tilt as his body finally caught up with him. Spyro crumpled to the ground as his vision flickered in front of him. The last thing he saw was Terador 's concerned face looming over him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Unconsciousness… it does things to your head

Cynder woke up outside, she could feel the wind on her scales and the cool morning air. Where was she, what had happened? Cynder opened her eyes and looked around, she was outside for sure, but the platform she was sleeping on and the architecture told her that she was at the temple. She must have been sleeping on the outside platform of the temple. But how had she gotten here. Her head was spinning. Cynder rolled onto her feet but bumped into something. She turned her head and discovered that Spyro had been lying next to her. Spyro, if only she could tell him again, if only she had the courage…. She had fought through apes, golems, and the devil himself with this dragon, yet she couldn't quite form the words she longed to say to him. But she was not going to let the words go unspoken. It was as Cynder stood there gazing at Spyro, still sleeping, that she started to notice the fresh scars all over his body. How had he gotten those? Cynder turned and looked at herself, she had scars all over her body as well, and her wings felt stiff and didn't look fully healed. What had happened?

Cynder sank to her knees as it all came back in a flash. The cliff edge, the capture, the torture, and the rescue. Cynder broke down into tears, not so much from fear as from relief; it was finally all over.

"Cynder?" Spyro had woken up and was now on his feet.

Cynder ran to him and buried her head in his arms.

"Glad to see that you're finally awake." Spyro just stood there, wrapping one of his around her for comfort.

After Cynder had finished crying she started to ask questions to clear her head. "What's going on Spyro, who were those apes, what were they doing, and why did they want me?"

Spyro took on a more serious tone, "we were hoping you could answer some of those questions, we haven't really found anything. So far in our searches we haven't come up with any answers"

Cynder suddenly remembered. "What about Zach?"

"I don't know, we still haven't found him, he seems to have just vanished, along with all the other apes. When we went back to the caves with the guardians we didn't find anything" Spyro stopped for a moment, a smile coming to his face. "But watching the guardians make the passages larger was quite entertaining. There were no apes and the castle was burned to the ground, they had moved on. When we went to look for the place where we were ambushed we found nothing, just a few scorch marks and a pile of rubble where the tunnel collapsed."

This struck Cynder that a lot had happened in the time she was asleep. " Spyro, how long have I been asleep?"

Spyro hesitated a moment before answering. "Ten days."

"WHAT?"

"We couldn't wake you even when we tried. You needed the sleep anyway, you were pretty beat up." Spyro got angry as he considered the last part of his statement, somebody was going to pay for what happened to Cynder.

Cynder just stared at Spyro, Ten days. She had really been out for that long? "You're seriously telling me ten days?"

"Yes, hard to believe isn't it. I was asleep for four until I finally woke up, we've spent the rest of the time looking for Zach and where the apes went."

"Ten days…"

"Hey at least its not three years this time, and were back at the temple already."

Cynder laughed at this, he was right. Compared to that three years they had missed, ten days was nothing, and they didn't have to trek across wilderness tied together to get home this time. As their laughter faded Cynder couldn't help but think about everything that had happened, she never wanted to go though anything like that again. But something was up, even with Malefore gone, the apes were still up to something, and she had gotten caught in the middle of it. But what were they up to, what did they want with her, and what could they possible do without Malefore leading them anyway? Suddenly a terrible though occurred to her.

"Spyro, you don't think the apes could be trying to resurrect Malefore do you? I mean is that even possible?"

Spyro looked worried; "I don't know Cynder, lets hope they can't, no one needs to go through that again."

"You need not worry young dragons, it is impossible for Malefore to escape his prison." Terador had walked into the room with the other guardians, "there is no power on this world that can break the bonds that hold him." Terador turned to Cynder. "Good to see that you're awake and well, you had us worried for a few days, Spyro spent every minute of his days that wasn't spent looking for the apes here next to you."

Cynder turned to Spyro, but he had his face turned away from her, seemingly distracted by something in the distance. Cynder almost giggled, you could see his face was bright red, well bright purple-red, even from this angle.

Terador, seemingly oblivious to Spyro's discomfort, continued "you should have seen him, anxiously waiting for you to wake up, why he even…."

Spyro cleared his throat. "Ok… we get the picture Terador, did you need something from us?"

"Oh no, we were just passing through on the way to the reflection pool, we have a lot of things to discuss."

"Do you need us there?"

"No, you two need to relax, and you should probably fill Cynder in on everything that she's missed."

"Yeah Spyro, what have I missed? I don't know if you're as confused as I am, but I cant make heads or tails of this."

"Ok… ok… come on well go someplace quieter."

"Quieter than here?" Cynder shot Spyro a questioning look as he walked off with out her. Where was quieter than at the temple.

"Just come on"

Terador watched as Spyro ran off into the temple with Cynder walking after him, careful on her shaky legs. They made quite an interesting pair, but a pair none the less. Only time would tell if they were to survive the turmoil to come. "Volteer, Cyril, let us go…"

The three guardians walked into the reflection pool chamber. As they stood around the pool Terador couldn't help but feel the absence in the space. Without Ignitus in the room, it felt empty and cold. There were trials going for the next Fire Guardian, so the absence would only be temporary, but Ignitus could never be replaced, never. Some people had suggested Spyro as the next guardian, but Terador and the others had strictly refused. The young dragon already had enough responsibility thrown at him in his life. He deserved to be able to make his own choices and relax for a while. So it would be a while until the room was full again. Until then it would just be the three of them…

"Well now on to business."

"Yes, what is this business you called us here for, and shouldn't Spyro and Cynder be here? They should have a say in things."

"I left Spyro out of this because I don't want him taking the responsibility of these problems on his shoulders. We should be able to handle them just fine."

"Will you ever tell us what exactly you called us here for?"

Terador sighed, Volteer was so impatient. "Very well then. I have asked you here for your opinion on a mater that has come up in the few days since Spyro returned. There have been a number of reports in coming in of villages being ransacked. Some burned to the ground, others seeming to have been blow over by extreme winds, but all have one thing in common. No one saw how it happened. The reports have come from all over. Here, here, and here." Terador pointed to three different points on a map; none of which were anywhere near each other.

"If the only thing connecting them together is that no one saw what happened, why are you so sure they are connected. These three villages have nothing in common. Perhaps it was three different attacks by wild creatures, or renegade apes."

"No the fact that no one saw anything can not be a coincidence. Here," Terador pointed to one of the villages, "they were having a celebratory feast in the center of the village when it was ransacked. Everyone was attending when reports say that a mighty wing knocked everyone to the ground and flattened the whole village. Here," Terador pointed to a different spot, " is a similar story, everyone saw all of their homes simultaneously bust into flames. There is no way that these were accidents. And there is no way that some wild animals, or uncoordinated apes, could ever pull off something like this. Someone is up to something, and I have an idea that it is liked with what happened to Spyro and Cynder."

"So… we just need to find the people that are doing this. It shouldn't be that hard."

"Agreed… I've already set up a few patrol routs along neighboring areas. If it happens again near us, we will be there to find out what's going on."

"So why couldn't Spyro be here for this? We could use his help with this, I'm sure he's up to it."

"There is more than one reason why I called you here tonight, and more than one reason I didn't want Spyro to hear this. I wasn't honest with Spyro when I told him that nothing could bring back Malefore.

"What! What could possibly have enough power to release him? If that's what the apes are after we need to go get it first."

"Slow down for a second while I explain myself. I didn't tell Spyro this because he is the one thing that can bring Malefore back"

"What?!"  
"A purple dragon has the power to do anything. And since Malefore is incased in a crystal at the center of the earth, and the next Purple dragon shouldn't come for another ten generations, Spyro is the only immediate option to anyone trying to revive him."

"So why don't we tell him, he's sure to want to know this."

"I'm afraid to tell him because of what he might do if he found out. I think that the apes took Cynder to get to Spyro, if they had her, they could get him to do anything they wanted, possibly even release Malefore. If Spyro knew what they had planed to do, or what power he had, he could think that it was all his fault and do something rash. And we don't need him running of right now. You know he tends to overreact sometimes."

"So what do we do for now?"

"We keep an eye on Spyro and Cynder, and we try and figure out why these villages are being attacked, Until then all we can do is wait…"

The guardians sat in silence, reflecting for a few minutes, until they left one by one, leaving the pool in the silence of the temple.

Spyro and Cynder sat in silence on the temple roof, looking over at the valley below them. Spyro had spent the last few minutes recapping the past few days to her, starting from when he woke up at the temple and met Zach, through the days that she had been asleep. He had to use what Terador had told him to fill in the space between when they had they had left the cave till when he had had woken up. After he had finished his Story, Cynder had simply sighed and lay down looking out over the valley below. Spyro lay down next to her. It was so peaceful here. Spyro wished that he could just stay here forever, and not have to worry about anything. But his recent encounter with the apes, Cynder's capture, and Zach's random appearance then disappearance meant that life wasn't going to return to normal anytime soon. What was normal anyway, Spyro didn't think that he had ever really lived a normal life. Raised by parents from a different species, finding out that he was destined to save the world, learning he could fly, chasing people around the county, fighting an ultimate evil, trapping himself in a crystal for three years, and eventually stopping the world from breaking into pieces. Yeah… that's not what Spyro would call a normal life, not by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, he didn't really know what a normal life was. The only person he knew his age was Cynder, and she hadn't lived a normal life either. And then there was Zach. Spyro may not have known him very well but he had a pretty good guess by his reactions that he probably didn't have a normal life either. What did the world have against his generation, what had he ever done to deserve this?

Spyro was thrown back into reality when Cynder rolled over and lay up against him. Being so close to her… Spyro felt a chill run up his spine, but he did his best to keep from shaking. He really loved her, but he didn't know how she felt. What would happen if he told her how he felt? How would she react? The last thing he wanted to do was push her away from him. And there was something else that bothered him. He felt like what she had gone through, everything, from the day she was born enslaved by apes to her recent capture, was his fault. After all, the apes had only taken her to avoid the purple dragon prophecy. Would she ever be able to forgive him for that?

Spyro was getting more uncomfortable by the second. He needed some time to think… alone. He still hadn't completely recovered from the recent events… well he didn't think he had completely recovered from the day that Ignitus told him he was a dragon. Everything since then had been an adventure. He needed his reality to catch up with the real world. Things would never go back to the way they used to be.

Spyro's thoughts turned back to Cynder. What was she going to do now that it was all over. She had almost been forced to go along with all of his adventures, quite literally in the days after they escaped from the crystal. Their companionship had been necessary. But now that it was all over, and she was free to go, what would she choose to do?

It was all too much for Spyro; he needed someplace to himself. Spyro tried to gently remove himself from Cynder leaning against him.

"Where are you going Spyro?" Cynder looked up at Spyro, her eyes questioning him more than her words.

"I need some time to myself to think… so much has happened, and I don't think I quite understand it all."

"You can talk about it with us Spyro, you know that, we're always here for you."

"I know, but these are things I have to figure out for myself."

"Alright then, I'll be here when you get back." Cynder sounded disappointed, and Spyro felt bad about leaving her here like this. But he needed some time to himself.

Spyro turned to take off from the roof, there was a small clearing in the garden nearby, it was a secret place that he was fairly sure no one else knew about. He had always used it to clear his mind whenever he felt lost or confused in his early day at the temple, if it was still there, it would be the perfect place to focus his thoughts and sort things out.

As Spyro was starting to take off he heard Cynder let out an audible gasp behind him. When he turned to see what was wrong he saw her staring off into the distance. Spyro followed her stare and stopped at the sight.

Off in the distance, an explosion had ripped though a village. Shards of buildings had been thrown into the air and there was a visible distortion from the shock wave. Spyro watched in horror as numerous smaller explosions ripped the village apart, sending buildings and walls flying.

"Spyro we have to do something." Cynder was already on her feet, moving towards the village in the distance.

"Right lets go." They had done things like this so often it was almost second nature, they had to help those people.

Spyro and Cynder both took off from the temple towards the battered village. So much for getting some alone time. It seemed like this happened every time Spyro might get a break. Spyro and Cynder watched from the air as even more explosions ripped through the village, but there was something not right about them. There was no fire, no smoke, only a huge shock wave. What could cause such a thing to happen? As they got closer to the village, the explosions seemed to lessen in number. Maybe it was almost over, whatever it was. Spyro and Cynder put on a little extra speed, the inhabitants of the village would need some help.

Once they were almost over the village. An enormous explosion ripped through the village again, flattening anything that was still standing. Spyro and Cynder, who were still in the air, now had to deal with the enormous shock wave headed towards them. All Spyro could do was watch helplessly as the distortions in the air came closer to them.

"Get ready!"

"how?"

The shock wave felt like a punch to the chest as it hit the two dragons, sending them wheeling backwards through the air. Spyro recovered quickly. But Cynder, who was still tired and injured from her ordeal, was slower. She recovered only feet from the ground, forcing her to make a crash landing in the dirt. Spyro flew down to where Cynder was laying on the ground.

"Cynder are you ok?"

Cynder stood on shaky legs. "Yeah I'm fine, I probably shouldn't have tried to be so active so soon."

"You sure you're ok?"

"I told you I'm fine Spyro" Cynder shot Spyro an irritated glance.

"Just stay close Cynder, we'll walk the rest of the way to the village."

Spyro and Cynder walked side by side through the woods the rest of the way to the village. They both had to stop when they saw the devastation. The whole village had been knocked to the ground. Splinters of wood were strewn everywhere and everything that hadn't been ripped apart by an explosion had been flattened. As Spyro and Cynder started to walk through the village, they started to notice the inhabitants of the village. It turned out to be a cheetah village, and those who weren't injured by the explosions were already helping to pull people out of the wreckage. As they walked, Spyro and Cynder drew attention from the inhabitants. Some gave them blank stares, as if they could explain why their lives had just been torn away from them, others gave them cold indifferent stares, still in shock from the event, and still others simply nodded at them, glad that someone had come to help.

Spyro and Cynder walked to the center of the village, which had been cleared of debris. There was a cheetah there giving direction to everyone else, they guessed he must be the village leader. He was older and was supporting himself with a cane, but the people gave him their utmost respect. As they approached him, the people around him grew quiet, some talking in hushed whispers to each other.

The cheetah was the first to talk. "Two dragons? Thank the ancestors that you are here, come tell me your names. I would like to thank those who came to help us."

Spyro stepped forward. "Umm… I'm Spyro, and that's Cynder." Cynder nodded.

"Ah Spyro, Cynder, tales of your deeds have traveled to us already, it is good to finally meet you, yet I wish it could have been under better circumstances."

"As do I." Spyro looked around. "Do you know what happened here?"

"No. No one saw exactly what happened, the fist explosion was all the warning we received before the attack began."

"Did they take anything? Was anyone hurt?"

"They did not take anything, and the worst injuries seem to be broken bones or concussions, nothing to serious."

Spyro couldn't help but think that Zach could be really useful right now, but this wasn't the time. "What can we do to help, is there anything you need?"

"No, your presence here is help enough, it lets the people know that someone still cares. Almost everyone is accounted for, and nothing can be salvaged from our homes, so all I ask of you is that you report this to the guardians."

As Spyro and the elder talked, Cynder went over to a cheetah mother struggling with many children. They children were instantly fascinated with a dragon, they obviously weren't very common sights around this village. The mother watching the children simply smiled at Cynder, Cynder smiled back but something didn't feel right to her. Even in the devastation, the mother seemed happy just to be around children, could she ever be like that? Could she ever have children? Cynder looked back at Spyro standing behind her.

Spyro continued to talk with the elder. "So what will you do now, where will you stay? Will you try and rebuild?"

The village elder pointed off into the distance. "There is a neighboring village not to far from here that is friendly to us, they should have no problem providing shelter for my people. And as for rebuilding… that will have to be decided, some people may want to move on after this event, so building the new over the old is not a good idea, we may move to a different place."

"Well we will stay and do what we can, and we'll help your people get to the neighboring village. Who knows if whatever did this will come back."

"Once again young dragon, I thank you for your kindness."  
Spyro left the elder to continue to give direction to his villagers. They would need all the direction they could get. Spyro went and joined Cynder, and together they helped wherever they could, moving debris, carrying equipment, and proving comfort to those who needed it. Their presence seemed to help the moral of the villagers. Spyro kept looking at the devastation. There was no fire, no scorch marks. What could have possibly done such a thing? Spyro couldn't help but be filled with rage at the sight, whoever had done this would be held accountable, he would make sure of that.

Cynder placed a hand on Spyro shoulder as she watched him shake slightly, she knew what he was thinking. Her touch startled Spyro and he stopped, letting out a sigh before getting back to work.

But little did they know as they worked, that there was a pair of eyes watching them from the bushes. Watching and waiting. When the dragons and cheetahs finally left that night for the other village later that night, the eyes watched them go, then they silently disappeared into the bushes, returning to darkness from which they came.

The lone agent walked back into the cave. The mission had been a success, but there had been some complications. The master needed to know about these things. The agent walked into the large cavern that served as the master's lair. Not very elegant, but it served its purpose well. The place was still really creepy though. It was pitch black and you couldn't see a thing once you walked inside, but it was the only way to communicate, so it had to be done. The agent walked to the center of the room and addressed the unseen master.

"I have returned, what you asked has been done."

"Good… I see that…"

"…But there may be a problem."

The disembodied voice stopped. "What do you mean… there was a problem?"

"I completed my task as you asked, but as I waited to see the results, Spyro and Cynder showed up."

"Humph, and you think this was a problem…"

"Well I thought that…"

"How little you understand …You see these assignments are not only a test of your strength, but they are also a lure for Spyro and Cynder."

The agent stopped, this really didn't make any sense. "But why do we need to draw them out. If we are going to attack them, we have always know where they are, and the have been weak lately, why didn't we attack before they regained their strength."

"You will understand it all eventually. But know that I need Spyro alive, for the task I have planed for him. but we need to lure them away form the guardians to out our plan into action. Their interference will cause problems. This is why we can't go after them in the temple. And if I haven't made myself clear, I need him alive."

"What is this plan you have for him exactly."

"All in good time…"

"So what would you have me do then?"

"Ah always impatient aren't you, I think that your training has progressed enough for you to take Spyro in his weakened state. I need you to bring Spyro here to me, alive. By any means necessary, of his own free will or not. Though if you had some leverage over him, it would make things easier. That's it that's all you have to do."

The agent thought about this for a while, it shouldn't be that difficult, but there may be some other problems. "What about Cynder?"

"Deal with her as you see fit, she tends to be a hassle, so it may be best to get rid of her."

The agent stood in the darkness, thinking silently about the next task. Slowly a grin slid across the agent's face.

"No… I think I may have a use for her yet…"

Spyro and Cynder stood in front of the guardians in the reflecting pool room.

"I wish you two hadn't done that. We don't know anything about who or what is attacking these villages. You two need to be here regaining your strength, not running around the countryside."

"So what would you have had us do, sit back and watch as those people lives were destroyed?"

"You misunderstood me Spyro, I am not mad at you for going to help, nor do I expect you to sit back and watch as these things happen. But I do want you to rest for a while and let you bodies heal, I am sure that we can handle the problem without any trouble. I understand you want to help Spyro, but you are not any condition to be running around right now… Now why does that seem so familiar…"

"I'm sorry Terador, I'm just tired"

"Ahh… I know… go get some sleep, it's late, and I think we all need some rest."

All of the dragons walked out of the reflecting poll room, headed deeper into the temple, branching off into down different paths. But Spyro stayed behind; he couldn't sleep, not just yet. Spyro slipped out onto the outside balcony. Just to sit out under the stars, it always seemed to calm him down. Spyro lay on his back looking up at the stars. It had been so long since he had a time like this, alone with his thoughts. Why had he been chosen for this, what kind of a life was he supposed to live when everything was trying to kill him? Everything in his life had been like some cruel joke, why had this all happened to him? Why? Why? Why? Sure he was a purple dragon, and sure he had saved the world for being destroyed. By why was his life still so miserable? Shouldn't everything have clamed down now? It seemed like everything was still trying to kill him. Maybe he should give it some more time, things were just settling down after the great upheaval. But what if things never settled down? He didn't want to spend his life struggling from one battle to the next. Its not like he was ever going to give up. But that wasn't the life he wanted to live. He wished he could just get away from it all. Get away from everything that had happened….

Ignitus, Spyro just couldn't stop thinking about him. Why had he sacrificed himself like that, there should have been another way. Ignitus had always been there when he felt lost. He had shown Spyro who he really was. He was the closest thing to a dragon father that Spyro had known. And he gave the ultimate sacrifice to save Spyro. Spyro broke down; simply letting the tears run down his face. Spyro looked up at the sky though blurry eyes, was he really still out there, there were so many things that he had wanted to ask, about himself, about what it really was to be a dragon, but he would never get the chance. But maybe he already knew… Spyro rolled onto his side as his thoughts tumbled through his head.

Spyro wondered if Cynder felt the same way. She may not have had the same problems that he did, but her life hadn't been any easier… Cynder… Spyro wasn't sure just how he felt when he though about her… He was just glad that she was ok for now. She always seemed to be stuck in the middle of things. But now that things seemed to be calming down, maybe he could sort his feelings out… he would have to talk with her tomorrow, she needed to know how he really felt.

Well that was one more life changing experience he had thought about in the last few hours. He may not have answered any of his deeper questions, but just being able to think about them made him feel so much better, more relaxed. But every time he seemed to solve one problem another popped into his life.

A.K.A Zach… Who was this new dragon? He seemed to have just popped into existence. And even stranger was that he came right when they needed someone the most. Was it just by chance, or did something draw him here. Did Zach even know what he was doing? How had he known to come all the way to the temple, and how had he found Cynder where she was? You don't really stumble on those things by chance. And how he acted, it was like he knew more than he was letting on, but yet he didn't know how to fly, or how to use any of his powers. Just who was he, and what happened to him? When they went to look for him, they found nothing, no body, no tracks, not a sign or a trace. That meant the apes had moved him somewhere, that gave Spyro hope that he was still alive. But if the apes had taken him, that either meant the needed something from him, or they didn't want his dead body there, neither of which were good options. They needed to go find him, Spyro couldn't just let him go though things alone and he had to know what had happened to Zach, more for his own sake. Zach deserved that much, Zach had helped him rescue Cynder, he didn't think it would have been possible to save her without Zach. Spyro made up his mind; he was going to start looking for him tomorrow, even if he had to do it alone.

Spyro lay tossing and turning on the balcony. He needed his sleep, but there were just too many thoughts in his head still. Zach, Ignitus, Cynder… Spyro got up and walked to the edge of the balcony. Where did Zach come from, and where did he go? Why was he so defensive when it came to where he was from? Did he have something to hide? Or were there other dragons out there? Maybe he and Cynder weren't so alone in this world after all. Spyro's heart leapt at the prospect. As Spyro stood looking out over the balcony, he saw a shadow moving into the gardens below.

"Huh?"

As Spyro watched, the shadow moved into the garden, he jumped off of the balcony and floated down to the garden below. Spyro looked to see a shadow disappear around a corner. Spyro tensed up, what could be in the gardens at this time of night? Spyro walked up to the corner he saw the figure disappear behind. He checked himself over, he felt well enough to fight, and help was seconds away if he needed it. Spyro looked around the corner. It was just Cynder. Spyro walked around the corner after her.

"Now don't tell me your planing on running away again."

Cynder turned around. "Oh, Spyro."

"What are doing out here by yourself?"

"I don't know, walking through the gardens always seems to calm my nerves."

"You couldn't sleep either?"

"No. Too much is going on. I thought everything was going to be over… but I don't really know anymore. I don't want to spend my entire life with someone trying to kill me."

"I know how you feel Cynder. But this will all be over soon. These apes just have to be remnants of Malefore's army, they'll disperse eventually, and everything will be back to normal." Spyro started laughing at his statement.

"What? What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking… what is normal?"

"Humph… I know what you mean. Neither of us have really had a normal life have we?"

"No. I'm not sure we will exactly fit the normal mold though. We've been though too much."

"Yeah…" they both let the conversation trail off, standing in silence for a few minutes.

Cynder stood looking up at the stars, something else was still bothering her. Just like Spyro, she was wondering what had happened to Zach. He had essentially saved her life. But where did he go, he fell of the face of the planet just as quickly as he appeared. There were so many questions, and all of them could go unanswered unless they found Zach… If he was still alive. But the thing that bothered her the most was how much Zach had known about her and Spyro. When she had talked about him later with Spyro, he had said some of the same things about Zach. That he had known who they were, that he had known what they went though, and he seemed to know their personalities to some extent. It didn't make any sense that Zach should know that much about them. There were too many unanswered questions, and no way to answer them…

"Something bothering you Cynder?"

"Hmm… yeah… I was just thinking about Zach… I guess we both owe him bigtime."

"Yeah…"

Spyro and Cynder both stood in silence for a few more minutes. She was right they did owe him a lot. It was funny, she had a lot of the same thoughts and troubles that he did, no wonder seeing as they had gone through so much together. Spyro stood staring at Cynder. She looked beautiful; the moonlight creating the perfect backdrop against her black scales. Spyro felt that all too familiar feeling well up inside of him again. He just had to tell her. It was starting to eat him alive. And now was as good as a time as any… but not here, Spyro knew the perfect place.

"Hey Cynder there's something I want to show you…"

"What is it Spyro…"  
Spyro started acting more energized, bouncing off into a different part of the garden. "Come one ill show you…"

"Hey Spyro wait up."

Spyro yelled back over his shoulder, laughing. "Not a chance…"

"Spyro!" Cynder bounded off after Spyro, racing to catch up with him.

Cynder chased Spyro though the maze of hedges and trees, never really catching up to him, but always seeming to get a glimpse of him as he turned a corner. a small smile crept to her face. He was leading her somewhere, but where? Cynder continued to chase Spyro. Never getting any closer, but never losing sight of him just the same. Cynder finally caught a good view of Spyro standing at the end of one of the hedgerows. There was no way out, Spyro had run himself into a dead end. "Finally, now what was it you wanted to show me?" a devilish grin spread across her face as she took a intimidating step towards him.

Spyro simply smiled at her and disappeared into the hedge behind him

"What?"

Cynder walked over to the end of the path to where Spyro disappeared. How had he done that, most of the hedges in the garden with thick and tangled with branches. Cynder went closer and examined where Spyro had disappeared. Everything looked normal… Cynder pushed aside some of the foliage… and smiled in satisfaction. There was a path just through the hedge. Cynder stepped through into the passage, wondering what Spyro could be leading her to, and wondering what could possible be on the other side of this passage.

Zach had finally found them. It hadn't taken him long to find the temple again. He had just had to follow the river back to the temple, and since he knew how to fly this time, it hadn't taken him six hours to find it. He had almost missed them. The only reason he had caught them was that he saw Spyro take off from the temple, and he had been trying to find them in the maze of a garden ever since. He had almost caught up to them once but Spyro suddenly took off into the garden with Cynder chasing after him. He had barely caught a glimpse of Cynder as she disappeared inside the hedges. It took Zach a few minutes until he finally found a place where the hedges had been disturbed. When he brushed them aside, he found a path that led through the hedges. Zach followed the passage through the hedge. It wasn't very long. And Zach quickly came out on the other side. But Zach heard voices coming through the leaves, so he stopped just before breaking through the hedge wall on the other side. Zach looked through the leaves to see what was going on.

"Wow! Spyro this place is beautiful." Cynder looked in amazement at her surroundings. She stood in a hidden alcove of the garden no more then fifteen feet wide, surrounded on all side by hedges covered in gorgeous flowers of innumerable varieties. Moonlight filtered throughout the trees that served as a canopy to completely enclose the clearing. A small spring fed a shimmering pond off on one side of the clearing, crating a soothing bubbling sound. Spyro leaned against a large tree in the center of the clearing. "How did you find it?"

"I just stumbled onto it one day. You can't see it from the air, and there are no clear passages from any part of the garden. I figured the actual path became overgrown. I don't think anyone else knows about this place. After I found it, I would come here every time I needed to be by myself."

"This place is amazing."

"I know, just like someone else I know…" Spyro trailed off.

"What was that Spyro?"

"Uh… nothing." Spyro was disappointed in himself. He had been so close, but something kept stopping him. He needed to tell her, that's why he had brought her here.

Cynder turned and walked towards the edge of the clearing, her face flushed. What was he going to say? It had almost sounded like he was going to… But maybe she was hoping too much. Cynder stood facing the wall with her back to Spyro. If only what she hoped for would come true.

Zach watched all of this from his place in the bushes. Cynder had walked just feet from where he was hiding. The perfect place to surprise her. Now he just needed her to look away from where he was hiding. He could tell what Spyro was doing, it should prove to make things more interesting.

Spyro walked up behind Cynder, staying a few steps behind her. "Cynder… I…"

Cynder turned her head back towards Spyro… this was the chance Zach was looking for. As Cynder turned around Zach shot out form the bushes, tackling Cynder. Cynder and Zach rolled along the ground while Spyro watched in total confusion. Zach and Cynder eventually rolled to a stop, with Zach on top, pinning Cynder to the ground with his forefeet. Spyro stood in shock while Cynder struggled to get free, wondering who was doing this to her. Spyro eventually shook himself out of his daze.

"Zach? Zach! What's going on? What are you doing?"

Zach stood over Cynder with an evil grin on his face. "Oh nothing, just thought I'd stop by… say hello… maybe ask a few questions."

Cynder continued to struggle under Zach, but to no avail. With one of his feet on her wings, she couldn't move without causing herself great pain. Cynder then tried to use her powers over darkness to phase out from under Zach, but she couldn't. What was going on, she should have enough energy to do it, why couldn't she get away?

"Heh. Can't get away Cynder? Can't use you powers either? Let me fill you in on a little secret here. Our powers cancel each other out. You see, I have power over light, and you have the power over darkness, and seeing as darkness and light cancel each other out, neither of us can use our powers when we're in contact."

Spyro broke in, anger already evident in his voice. "Let Cynder go Zach"

"Oh but why would I do that? Then I would lose my bargaining chip."

Spyro tensed up, ready to spring at Zach. "Zach, if you don't let her go I'll…"

"Ah ah ah… I wouldn't try anything if I were you." Zach moved his hand that wasn't on Cynder's wings over towards her head, placing his talons on her exposed neck. This caused Cynder to struggle more, franticly trying to get free. Zach simply put pressure on Cynder's neck, forcing her to lay still. Cynder could do nothing but look at Spyro, fear showing in her wide eyes.

Spyro backed up a little. He couldn't do anything right now. "Why are you doing this Zach?"

"Call it a change in viewpoints if you will, but to say the least, I'm not exactly your friend anymore. Not that you could have ever really called me a friend."

Spyro took a step towards Zach. "Zach, let her go, I don't know what you want, but Cynder's not a part of it. If you have a problem… its with me not her."

Zach pushed harder on Cynder's neck, making her let out a groan, stopping Spyro in his tracks. "Not a step closer Spyro, if you don't think I'll do it you're in for a rude awakening. And as for Cynder, she is actually quite important to me now."

"What do you want?"

"Good, I have your attention. What I want is your cooperation. I need you to come to the mountain of Malefore with me." Zach seemingly looked around the clearing as if what he said was part of a casual conversation. Spyro was quick to answer.

"Never! I don't know what you want, but if it involves that place, it can't be good."

Zach looked at Spyro in a mocking, questioning stare. "Is that your answer then? Well then I'm sure you'll have a lot of time to think about your decision … alone!" Zach stepped harder on Cynder, causing her to gag.

"Wait!"

Zach let up and Cynder gasped for air. "Now then… as I was saying… you will accompany me to the mountain of Malefore, and you will do what I ask there. Otherwise, Cynder's future won't be to bright."

Cynder started shouting at Spyro, "Don't do it Spyro, whatever it is, it's not worth it." Zach responded by crushing her wings with his foot, causing Cynder to cry out in pain again.

"Quiet! Now then, do we have an agreement?"

Cynder's pain was causing Spyro to become visibly distressed. "Only if you let Cynder go…" Maybe if he could knock, Zach off Cynder, then he could fight him without endangering Cynder.

"Oh now Spyro, do you really expect me to believe that you will still go with me after I let Cynder go… I don't think so. Cynder can go after you've done your task."

"And I'm supposed to believe that you're just going to let her go after I'm done?" Spyro moved slowly towards Zach, if he could find an opening, he could get Zach off of Cynder. All he had to do was find that opening he needed.

"I wouldn't come any closer Spyro… and I know what you're thinking. Don't try it."

Spyro stopped moving, he was close enough now, all he needed was a distraction. And he got just the thing he needed when Cynder shifted again under Zach, changing Zach's focus for a second. Spyro sprung, on a path to knock Zach off of Cynder.

But Zach wasn't distracted long enough. Before Spyro got to Zach, Zach had already returned his attention to Spyro. As Spyro came into contact with Zach and knocked him off of Cynder, Zach dug his talons into her neck, raking large gashes in her neck as he was knocked off.

Zach and Spyro rolled across the grounds, eventually ending up with Spyro pining Zach to the ground, his face inches from Zach's.

Spyro growled into Zach's face, his anger almost consuming him now "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

Zach just lay on the ground, a smirk on his face. "Because you need me Spyro. Take a look over there." Zach motioned with his head over towards Cynder. She was lying on the ground, blood seeping out of a gash in her neck. Spyro let out a gasp. "See you need me… Cynder will die within a few days if she doesn't get help. And I'm the only one who can give her that help."

Spyro stood in shock for a few seconds, what choice did he have, he didn't have much of a choice before, and now he had made things worse, instead of just having Cynder captive, now she may die… again. Spyro let Zach go, making sure to give him an extra push into the ground as he did. Spyro moved over to Cynder. Why was she always the one caught in the crossfire? Spyro looked closely at her wound, it was fairly deep, but the blood loss was slow, he couldn't really tell how bad it was. Cynder was already weak from her last ordeal, now she had to fight for her life again.

Zach stood up calmly from where he had been on the ground and dusted himself off. "My offer still stands, if you come to the mountain of Malefore, I will save Cynder. For now I'll leave you two alone, but meet me tomorrow on the top of the cliff, near the waterfall. Oh and come alone. But remember Spyro, Cynder's life now hangs in the balance. Choose wisely." Zach turned and walked out of the clearing through the hidden passage.

Spyro didn't get it. One day he was helping them save Cynder, the next he was trying to kill them. Something must have happened to him, but what?

Spyro turned back to Cynder, she was unconscious now. How could he have been so stupid. He needed to get her back to the temple. Spyro crouched down and rolled Cynder over and onto his back, careful to avoid her wound. It was about the only way he could carry her without being able to fly.

Spyro trudged his way back through the hedges, the weight on his back made all the heavier from the fact that this could have been prevented, and that it was his fault. Now what choice did he have? Unless the Guardians could somehow stop her bleeding, he would have to go along with Zach; he couldn't just let Cynder die.

Spyro eventually made it back out of the hedge. Letting Cynder slide of his back, Spyro positioned her so he could carry her with his feet. Spyro took off back towards the temple. Thankfully it wasn't very far from the gardens, but even this distance felt like an eternity to Spyro. Time was of the essence. As Spyro flew though the air, he could feel the blood dripping down his back, Cynder's blood. Spyro put more effort into his flight, pushing his wings to their limit.

Spyro quickly made it to the platform outside the temple, calling for help the second his feet touched the ground "Terador! Somebody! Help!"

As Spyro stood over Cynder, he saw torches being lit throughout the temple. After what seemed like another eternity, Terador made it to the platform.

"Spyro what is it…" Terador stopped when he saw Cynder on the platform. "What happened?"

Terador rushed over and picked up Cynder, quickly carrying her to another room inside of the temple. "Who did this to her?"

Spyro, who was holding back tears by this time, was barely able to choke out what happened. "Neither of us could sleep, so we ended up together in the garden. We were talking when… when Zach jumped out of the bushes and tackled Cynder, He wanted something from us, but didn't tell us what… but before he left… he did… he did that…" Spyro conveniently left out Zach's demands. If they knew what he wanted, there was no way they would let him go. But he had to go; it may be the only way to save Cynder.

"You mean Zach did this to her? That doesn't make any sense. He just helped you save her a few days ago. Why would he do this to her now?

It didn't make any sense to Spyro either, why was he always caught in a mess like this? Spyro couldn't take it anymore and left the room. Spyro stood out in the hall thinking. What could Zach possibly want with him? If he wanted to kill him, he would have done it in the garden instead of attacking Cynder. The only reason he could think of anyone going to the mountain of Malefore would be something involving the dark master himself. What if it came down to helping the dark master again or letting Cynder die? Spyro wasn't sure he could make that decision.

Terador eventually came out of the room, tears in his eyes. "We did all we could, but we don't know what's going to happen, she may still pull through, but her wounds are bad…" Terador trailed off, leaving Spyro's mind to finish for him. It was like Zach had said; he was the only one who could save her now. Spyro made up his mind. He was going to go to the cliffs tomorrow and meet with Zach. And he was going to get help for Cynder one way or another.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: this can't be good…

Spyro woke up early the next morning, the moon still hung high in the sky and the stars where still visible through the darkness. He had gotten very little sleep, spending the night in Cynder's room, waking up every time she shifted in her sleep. Spyro got up to check on her again. Cynder lay on a group of pillows over against a wall. Bandages wrapped around the open gashes on her neck… they had been too large for the guardians to do anything about it, so all they could do was hope for the best…

But Spyro knew it wouldn't be enough. Her breathing had become shallower throughout the night, and now it was barely perceptible. Spyro placed his hand up against Cynder's neck, careful to avoid her wounds. She still had a pulse, but it was so faint it took Spyro minutes to find it. Spyro brought back his hand wet with blood, Cynder's blood.

Spyro couldn't stand it anymore. Every time something good was about to happen in his life, something else came up to ruin it. He had been so close, so close to telling her… would he ever get the chance again?

Spyro cast his gaze over Cynder's broken body. Zach was the only one who could save her now, but at what cost. What did Zach want? And what would happen if he had to chose between what Zach wanted him to do, and Cynder's life? Spyro couldn't deal with the questions, now was not the time for him to worry about things, he would make a decision if the need ever arose, he hoped it never would. But for now he needed to take it one step at a time, he had an appointment to keep, and there was going to be trouble.

Spyro walked over to Cynder once more, she was so fragile, so broken, just laying there. Spyro let a tear fall to the ground. This would never happen again… not if he had anything to say about it. Spyro went over and rested his head next to Cynder's on the pillows. "I love you Cynder…" Spyro lay there for a second, letting his own words sink in. if only she could hear him now. He really did love her, and would do anything to save her, no matter the cost…

And right now that meant he had to go meet with Zach. Maybe he could finally get some answers to the questions they all had. Why was Zach doing these things? Spyro knew so little about the dragon, and everything he thought he knew was now clouded in doubt and anger. Spyro made his way out of the room Cynder was in, making sure not to wake Cryil, who was sleeping outside the door in case someone was needed. He then continued down the hall, through the reflecting pool chamber, you practically had to go though that room to get to any part of the temple. Spyro stepped around Terador and Voltier who were sleeping on the floor. It reminded him of those years ago when he had snuck out to follow Cynder into the gardens, starting a part of his last adventure. Spyro had a feeling that this time would be no different. But it couldn't be helped. If the guardians knew what he was doing they would either not let him go, or demand to go with him, neither of which he could let happen. Zach had said to come alone, and Spyro knew he wouldn't hesitate to leave if the guardians came along. He had to go it alone.

Spyro walked out to the edge of the outside platform, taking one last look at the temple behind him. Who knew when the next time he would see it would be? The guardians and Cynder… he was doing this for her, it may not be the best choice, but it sure was the right one. Spyro took off from the temple, setting course for the cliffs in the distance.

Volteer woke from his slumber, it was time for him to check on Cynder. The poor dragon, her life had been such a mess. All he could hope for was that they could find some way to help her before it was too late. Volteer knocked on the outside of the doorframe before entering the room. But no one answered, Spyro must still be asleep. Voltier walked over to Cynder, untying the bandage around her neck. With the bandage off, Cynder's wounds could be seen clearly. Three deep long gashes ran across her neck and throat, the one in the middle being the largest. All three had a jagged look, as if torn apart rather than cut. There was no way it would heal without something else being done. Voltier sighed as he tied a new bandage around her neck, using he teeth to tighten the knot. The only person who could possible save her was the person who had done this to her. He had heard about what Zach had done for Spyro, but he hadn't believed it until he saw Spyro come back from the caves better than he had left… well not much better, but he had been able to make the trip, which was a miracle in itself.

As Volteer finished, he wondered how Spyro was holding up in all of the commotion. He looked around the room, but couldn't seem to find him anywhere. With only the moons for light, there were shadows all over the ground. Voltier sent a spark off to light the nearest torch. When Voltier looked around in the torchlight, he still couldn't find Spyro.

Volteer thought that Spyro might have slipped by him to his own room to sleep for the night, so he headed out of the room, extinguishing the torch on his way out. As he left the room he took one last look at Cynder. "Get well young dragoness, for all of us." As Voltier walked down the hall, he thought about how creepy the temple was at night, with shadows everywhere and an unshakable chill in the air, it had a haunted atmosphere. Voltier turned the corner into Spyro's room and looked inside, but the young dragon wasn't there either. Voltier immediately knew something wasn't right and raced back to wake the other guardians.

"Voltier what is it? I hope it's important for you to be waking us up at this hour."

"Well I went to check on Cynder to see how she was doing, and while I was there I figured that I would check and see how Spyro was doing, but when I checked he wasn't there so I though he might be I his room so…"

"Out with it already Voltier"

"It's Spyro, he isn't here!"

"What? He has to be here somewhere."

"I already checked, he is nowhere in the temple."

"Well where could he have possibly gone…" Terador stopped mid sentence, he knew what Spyro was after. "He's gone after Zach. We have to find him now! Voltier, you check around the temple, Cryil, you check the surrounding villages."

"What about you Terador?"

"I have an idea as to where he might have gone." Terador looked off in the distance, towards the cliffs shrouded in mist. "You two go ahead, I will go alone. If you find him, bring him back to the temple immediately. And don't spent too long, we can't leave Cynder here without us."

The three guardians took off from the temple, all set off in different directions, but all with the same mission. As Terador broke off from the other guardians and headed towards the cliff, he couldn't quite shake the feeling of dread that overwhelmed him. "What have you done young dragon?"

Spyro flew blindly through the mist surrounding the cliff. He didn't even know where he was anymore or how close he was to the cliff face. What was he doing out here anyway? He had no idea where he was supposed to meet Zach, he had said on the top of the cliff, but the top of the cliff was a huge place. But he had to start somewhere. Spyro continued to fly lost in thought, he had to be close. Spyro gasped in surprise as the cliff face appeared through the mist before him. Spyro immediately pulled up to avoid crashing into it, practically running up the cliff face he got so close. He would have to be more careful in this mist; he could hardly see a thing.

Maybe he shouldn't be trying this at all, it was probably a trap, and he wasn't in any shape to be fighting, but he had to do this. There was no other way to save her. Spyro flew up the cliff face, making sure to stay close enough that he could use the cliff as a guide. After what seemed like hours, Spyro reached the top of the cliff. Spyro landed and looked around. He still couldn't see anything, besides the rock under his feet, all he could see was the blanket of mist surrounding him. So now what did he do? He was here, but where was Zach? Spyro temperature spiked as he thought about him. What was his problem anyway? He may have all the time in the world, but Cynder didn't.

"Gah! Where are you Zach!" Spyro screamed the question to the empty air.

Spyro was answered by laughter emanating from somewhere in the mist. "What's the matter Spyro, is something bothering you, perhaps I can help…"

Spyro looked around franticly, trying to find the source of Zach's voice, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. "Zach, where are you? Show yourself you coward!"

"Oh now that's not a very nice thing to say Spyro, especially to the one person who can save Cynder."

"I'm here, now what do you want?" Spyro controlled his voice just enough to respond to Zach without screaming at him.

"To the point now are we? Very well, I want you to come with me."

"Where?" Spyro demanded as he still franticly looked for Zach through the mist.

"No where in particular, just the mountain of Malefore."

"No way, I don't know what you want there, but I won't help you get it."

"Ah… remember Spyro, Cynder's life hangs in the balance, are you sure that's your answer?"

"What kind of person hides behind the life of an innocent girl like her?" Spyro thought he saw a figure moving in the mist in front of him.

Zach laughed. "Innocent? Really? You and I both know what she's done. I would hardly call her innocent of anything."

"She was being used, she had no choice in the matter."

"Really? Well I'm sorry, I guess all of the dragons she killed weren't her fault either…"

Spyro growled with anger, "you leave her out of this, it has nothing to do with her…"

"Doesn't it, after all, you and I both know you wouldn't be doing this if it her life wasn't at stake… but anyway, were getting off topic, are you ready to go? Or are you going to forfeit Cynder's life?"

Spyro was on the brink of lashing out, but he couldn't afford the consequences. "Show yourself Zach, or are you too scared to talk to me in the open?"

"I'm actually closer than you think Spyro." Spyro's eyes went wide with fear, somehow Zach had managed to sneak up and stand right behind him. How had he not seen him coming? Spyro tried to turn but Zach kicked him in the side before he could turn completely around, sending him flying across the ground.

That was it, no more talk, Zach was going down, he would make him help Cynder whether he wanted to or not. Spyro charged at Zach, tackling him and sending them both into a spiral of claws and teeth. Spyro clawed at Zach, trying to gain the upper hand. Zach scratched at Spyro's underbelly, most of his blows grazing off the scales but others leaving long wounds down his stomach. Spyro kicked Zach off of him, sending Zach flying into the air. Zach recovered mid air and flapped his wings, disappearing back into the mist. Spyro tried to follow but landed again when he couldn't find Zach in the thick mist. Spyro looked around, waiting for the next attack, but was completely disorientated. He couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything, couldn't hear anything, the mist was confusing all of his senses.

Zach barreled down from the mist behind Spyro, smashing into his back. Spyro crumpled to the ground as Zach rolled off of him and landed on his feet. Spyro got to his feet again and charged Zach. Zach sidestepped Spyro and lashed out with his tail, knocking Spyro off his feet. Zach went over and put one is of his claws on Spyro's chest. "You really shouldn't have done that, it wont make anything better…" Spyro snapped his head around to face Zach, anger flashing in his eyes. Spyro grabbed Zach's leg and twisted it around, using it to throw Zach off of him. Spyro rolled over onto Zach, bringing his claws down gashing Zach's forearm. Zach growled in pain and used his hind legs to kick Spyro off of him. Both dragons got up off the ground and stared each other down, Zach cradling his injured arm, blood starting to seep through his fingers. Zach was the first one to break the standoff, "are we done playing games Spyro? Or would you prefer to wrestle around the ground more while Cynder's life slips away?"

"You shut up!" Spyro spat a fireball at Zach, only to watch him disappear as the fireball burned away a path in the mist. "What?"

"How quickly you forget things Spyro…" Zach's voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Spyro spat off another fireball in the direction he thought the voice was coming from.

"Hah! Not even close Spyro, you seem to be losing you touch." Spyro spat off another fireball, in a different direction this time, trying to find Zach through all of the mist surrounding him.

"What's the matter Spyro? Can't hit something you can't see?" Spyro spat off a volley of fireballs, following what he though was a shadow in the mist. But every time he seemed to hit the shadow, it would reappear in a different place.

"Poor Spyro, lost and with no one to run too, what ever will he do?" Zach laughed from somewhere in the surrounding mist. "Face it Spyro, you're out matched here."

Spyro was going to make Zach eat those words. Spyro took off, trying to get high enough that he could get out of the mist. If he could see Zach, he might have a chance. As Spyro was flying, Zach shot out from somewhere in the mist and slammed into Spyro. Spyro felt his wings collapse as he started to fall towards the ground. Spyro flared out his wings in a desperate attempt to slow his fall, but landed hard on the ground, the shock traveling up though his body and rattling his teeth. Spyro looked around again, Zach was still nowhere to be seen.

"Come on Spyro, can't take me by yourself. You need Cynder to save you from your own battles? Wow, that's pretty sad Spyro… I guess you'll be out of luck once she's gone…"

Spyro felt rage flare up inside of him as he thought about Cynder, her broken body. Zach had done that to her, the dragon that was now toying with him as if it were just a game. Spyro's body started to glow with a red hue as he drew energy from the surrounding air. Spyro fueled his powers with his emotions, all his rage, all his sadness into one ball of energy. Spyro held himself together until he thought he would be ripped apart by the power he held within him, releasing it all out in one massive wave of fire that radiated from his body.

Spyro sank to his knees, he felt completely drained again. But had it been worth it? Spyro looked around, he had cleared away the mist within at least a fifty-foot radius surrounding him. He didn't see Zach though and that worried him. He had probably run off somewhere. Spyro tried to stand but fell to the ground again. He was too tired to move. Spyro listened to the air around him. There were no other sounds than that of the distant waterfall; he should be safe for now.

"Bravo Spyro, I head that you were powerful, but that was impressive, too bad you missed though."

Spyro's head shot up again as he looked around for Zach. How had he missed him, there should have been now way he could have escaped that. Spyro spotted Zach as he dove down from the air right over top of him, but it was too late. Zach slammed into Spyro again with the full force of his dive, knocking Spyro back across the ground. Zach walked over to Spyro and grabbed him by the horns, holding his head against the ground. Spyro was too week to resist.

"You're lucky I need you alive Spyro, or you would be dead right now." Zach jerked Spyro's head towards the ground again, Spyro felt the vertebrae in his neck strain and pop from the force. Zach got close enough that he was whispering in Spyro's ear "You may have been a proud warrior once Spyro, but now your no more than a hopeless wreck."

Another voice came cutting though the mist, "Spyro! Spyro! Where are you Spyro?"

Zach turned to Spyro, "I told you to come alone, this wasn't part of the deal." Zach threw Spyro to the ground and left him lying there. "Remember Spyro, Cynder's life hangs in the balance of your decisions. I would remember that the next time I offer you a way to save her… I'm out of here for now… Oh, and don't worry, I'll find you the next time we need to chat." Zach walked away, disappearing into the mist, leaving Spyro lying on the ground.

"Spyro, Spyro! Where are you?" Terador walked through the mist to find Spyro lying motionless on the ground.

"Spyro!" Terador rushed over to where the young dragon was lying on the ground, using one of his massive claws to hold him up. "Spyro are you alright?"

Spyro groaned as he tried to stand up again. "I'm fine Terador, just a little beat up…"

"What happened Spyro?"

Spyro was too embarrassed to answer. Not only had he just got his butt kicked by Zach, he had also done everything behind the guardians backs. But it was necessary, wasn't it? It was all for Cynder.

"I ran into Zach out here, he caught me by surprise."

"What were you doing out here by yourself so early in the morning?"

"I don't know, I thought that maybe I could find a way to help Cynder, to do something…" Spyro really didn't know why he was out here. He still didn't understand what was going on, or what Zach wanted exactly. And the question still nagged at the back of his mind… what would he do if he had to make that choice?

"Well let's get you back to the temple, everyone is out looking for you, and you need to get your rest."

"I can't move very quickly right now, I'm tired out after that fight."

"Don't worry about it, we have all the time in the world."

Yeah, he might have all the time in the world, but Cynder didn't…

Zach walked back through the caverns into the dark, dreary cave that served as his master's lair. Zach stood in the center of the dark expanse and spoke to the empty air.

"Really, a cave, you couldn't have picked something less… I don't know… less cliché?"

A low grumble resounded from somewhere deep in the cave "It's not as if there were many other spots that the guardians couldn't find me…"

"I know, but really, a cave? It's about the most inconvenient place possible…"

"I don't care about your convince, what I care about is you getting Spyro to come to me!" the voice was now filled with rage, sending shivers down Zach's spine.

" Yeesh, relax, he'll come here eventually…"

"You know what the price of failure is…"

"Hey now, I didn't fail. I kicked his but in a fight, all we need to do is give him some more time, he'll come around eventually. This is how I see it. Either he will eventually give in and come here willingly to save Cynder, and you get whatever it is you want. Or if he waits too long and Cynder dies, he chases me down in a fit of rage. And seeing as I'm here in this cave with you, if he chases me down, you'll have him where you want him."

"If you bested him in a fight, why did you not simply bring him here by force? I do not need him to be willing to complete the task I have for him."

Zach growled as he answered. "One of those annoying guardians showed up, so I bolted. I figured they shouldn't find out what I'm up to, Spyro is too worried about Cynder to risk telling them. Besides I'm not so sure I can take one in a fight."

The bodiless voice snapped back. "You know the power I gave you is more than enough to defeat one of those outdated guardians. But… it is probably for the best… lets keep them in the dark for a while longer, by the time they figure it out it will be too late."

"What is your plan anyway? You still haven't told me." Zach was getting tired of all the mystery and games that surrounded this guys 'plan.'

"All in good time, for now, just do the tasks I assign you and it will all become clear in time."

"Again with the 'all in time' deal, can you ever give me straight answer?"

A deep growl resounded through the cave, rattling Zach's ears. "You would be wise to not question me like that, remember that you are expendable."

Zach answered through clenched teeth "yes sir."

Zach turned and started to walk out of the cave.

"And just where do you think your going? I'm not done with you."

Zach stopped at the edge of the cave.

"I think that you may be on to something, forget using Cynder as leverage. Having Spyro enraged and confused when he gets here will serve my purposes perfectly. Once Cynder passes away, Spyro's emotions will control his actions and lead him right into our trap."

Zach smiled at the thought, this would knock that purple dragon down a few pegs. "Loud and clear." Zach turned again and continued to walk out of the cave.

"Zach where are you going?"

"I think that Spyro might need a push in the right direction, if you know what I mean…"

Zach left the cave to the sound of maniacal laughter echoing off the walls.

Spyro stood looking over Cynder. Her body was cold now; they had her covered in blankets to keep her warm. Her pulse was so faint that Spyro couldn't even feel it now. But that might have been from how much Spyro's hand had been shaking. Spyro lay down next to Cynder, trying to keep her body warm with his own. The questions kept racing though his mind. Why did this always happen to her… to him. Why was it that when everything was so close to being back to normal, that some other crisis appeared? And they were always in the center of it. But the one question that consumed all others was what if he hadn't? What if he hadn't tired to get to Zach while he still had a hold of Cynder? Would she have gotten away, would she be in this state, would she be a prisoner again somewhere? It seemed like everyone who got close to him always ended up hurt. First Ignitus, now Cynder, who was next, one of the other guardians?

Spyro lay still and listened to Cynder's labored breathing. It seemed like every breath she took was shallower then the last. He felt so helpless, there had to be something he could do, anything…

Anything…

Would he really hold up to that promise? Zach's deal came to his mind again, what did Zach want him for? It was starting to eat him alive. He had said that he would do anything for Cynder, and he had meant it. If it came down to it, Spyro might just have to… Spyro let out a deep sigh. Who was he that he was the one to make life and death decisions. He needed a place to think.

Spyro got up from next to Cynder and walked out of her room, taking one last look at her as he left. Spyro walked through the same path that he had taken earlier that morning, arriving on the platform outside the temple.

"You're not running off again now are you Spyro?"

Spyro turned to see Terador looming in the doorway to the temple.

"No Terador, I just need some time to think."

"Hmm… I see." Terador kept a suspicious eye trained on Spyro. "She will pull through Spyro, she's a strong girl. You don't need to worry about her."

Terador meant well but Spyro could hear his voice crack and break. "I've got to go Terador," He couldn't stand being around people anymore.

"Spyro wait…"

But Spyro paid him no attention, he walked over to the edge of the balcony and dove off, diving towards the ground below. Spyro flared his wings and banked towards the entrance to the garden below. As he landed he looked back over his shoulder towards the temple. Terador was just taking off and was headed in his direction. Spyro headed deeper into the garden. Why wouldn't people just leave him alone sometimes? Spyro headed through the garden, following the same path he had led Cynder on the night before. Everything seemed so quiet now, where it had been bustling with sounds before. Spyro made his way to the dead end passageway, pushing aside the hedges and plunging deeper into the gardens.

Spyro broke through the last of the hedges into his secret alcove. It looked so different from how it should. Large gouges had bee torn in the earth from where Zach had tackled Cynder, tearing up the ground and throwing mud everywhere. There was also a blood streaked across the ground from the exit of the clearing to a large pool in the center. Maybe he shouldn't have come here…

Spyro hear Terador calling his name from somewhere else in the gardens. He couldn't leave, not just yet. He walked over to the other side of the large tree in the center of the clearing, facing the clear pond on the other side of the enclosure. Spyro listened to Terador calling his name until his voice faded away, leaving Spyro to himself. Spyro finally felt the fatigue from the morning crash down on him. He needed rest and here was probably as good of a place as any. Spyro shifted to a more comfortable position at the base of the tree, drifting off into a restless sleep.

Spyro was in darkness again, complete and utter darkness. Where was he, this place seemed so familiar… A light appeared in a doorway inform of him. Curious, Spyro walked towards the light. The light was indeed coming from a doorway. About normal height, the doorway had no door to speak of, just a simple frame with a sheet of white light filling in the space in between. Spyro walked around the frame once, the backside of the frame empty of anything. Spyro could see straight through where the door would be to the other side, a white glow being cast on the other side from the strange light. Spyro walked through the doorway backwards, turning around to see himself come out of the column of light. "Strange." Spyro looked around again. "I guess there's nowhere else to go." Spyro gathered himself and walked into the column of light. A bright light flashed in front of Spyro as he walked into the column, forcing him to blink repeatedly to clear his vision. When his vision finally cleared, he took in the scene around him.

Spyro hovered about fifteen feet in the air, which was strange because he wasn't standing on anything, nor was he flying. It was more like he was standing on an invisible platform. Down below him he saw part of the temple gardens. Beautiful flowers covered most of the garden walls and the sun shone though the clouds, illuminating the scene. Off in one corner of the garden was a fountain that flowed out of the ground and into small streams that ran around a large central platform. But the thing that caught his attention was group of dragons standing on the platform around something else on the platform that Spyro couldn't see. On closer inspection he found that the group of dragons standing there were actually the guardians, but there was one smaller dragon that he didn't recognize. Spyro was taken by surprise; "this is too weird, I must be dreaming… I wonder what they're looking at." As if by command, Spyro's view on the scene shifted in font of him, his perspective changing so he was directly above the circle of dragons. Spyro's heart stopped at the sight. Lying in the center of the guardians, was Cynder's lifeless body.

"No!"

Spyro jumped off of his platform and floated down to the scene below. Tears were streaming down the faces of each of the dragons there. Spyro stood n shock. Had he been too late, why did she have to die? Spyro looked into the faces of the guardians, searching for answers, but they didn't seem to notice him. It was then that Spyro notice who the other dragon was. Zach stood on the edge of the circle looking at Cynder's body as well, but unlike the others, his face held no emotion at all. Spyro's sorrow turned to rage.

"You… you did this to her." Spyro charged blindly at Zach. But instead of running into Zach, he simply phased through him, crashing to the ground. Spyro tumbled to a stop at the edge of the platform. "Damn it Zach, why did you do this to her?"

But Zach didn't hear Spyro; his attention was riveted in Cynder.

"He didn't do this Spyro…"

Spyro lifted his hear to see Cynder get up of the ground and start to walk towards him. Everyone else didn't seem to notice and continued to stare at the spot she had been laying in on the ground. Her body had a semi transparent look and the pupils of her eyes were non existent, giving Cynder a haunting look.

"Cynder, I swear, I'll get Zach for what he did to you. I'll…"

Cynder shook her head "Spyro, he didn't do this…"

Spyro looked into Cynder's eyes. " Then who did this to you?"

Cynder turned to Spyro again, sadness in her eyes and hurt in her voice. "You did this Spyro…"

Spyro cringed as if struck "What? I would never do this to you Cynder… I…"

"Spyro why?" Cynder's voice was pleading with Spyro now, her voice cutting right to his core.

"But Cynder… I… I love you Cynder…"

Cynder turned her back to Spyro, her shoulder's heaved and tears ran down her cheeks. "Spyro…"

This was not happening. There was no way Cynder could be dead, and even less of a chance the Spyro was the one that killed her. The ground started to crack and crumble under Spyro's feet. Spyro tried to run to Cynder, to comfort her, to make her understand. But even though she was only feet way, she seemed to get farther away with every step. "Cynder!" The ground started to break apart under Spyro's feet, large chucks of the ground falling away into the darkness below. Spyro started jumping from section to section, trying to get to Cynder, but all the while getting farther away. Spyro made another jump, but when his foot hit the ground again, it crumbled, sending Spyro falling into the void

"Spyro… Why?"

"Cynder!" Spyro screamed in desperation, but to no avail. Spyro fell back into the darkness, the scene drifting father and farther away…

"Spyro…"

"Spyro… Spyro…"

Spyro realized that he wasn't dreaming anymore. "Cynder?"

"Not even close." Zach punched Spyro in the face, sending him reeling across the garden.

Spyro rose to his haunches and spat the blood out of his mouth. "You!"

"Aww, no name, I'm hurt Spyro…" Zach brought a hand up and placed it over his chest. Spyro just stared at him with a cold indifference.

"What do you want?"

Zach took on a sarcastic tone. "Really Spyro, you haven't figured it out by now… what do you think I want!" Zach just shook his head as he looked at Spyro.

"I don't know Zach. What do you really want? Because so far you haven't exactly explained yourself" Spyro stood up to face Zach. "So how about you start explaining yourself now. Starting with what the heck you think your doing!"

Zach lifted one of his claws and examined his talons. "I'm doing what needs to be done Spyro, and that's all you need to know for now…"

Spyro stamped his foot on the ground; his powers amplifying it and making the ground shake. Zach shifted his balance to keep from falling over, but seemed otherwise unconcerned with the display. " 'That's all I need to know' I'm tired of hearing that, I've heard that for most of my life, I want answers!"

Zach shook his head, "then you're asking the wrong dragon… I know about as much as you do."

"Then why are you doing this?" Spyro wanted an answer, any answer that would explain what was going on. And how did Zach not know what he was doing? Was he just a pawn in someone else's plan?

Zach let out an exasperated sigh. "I suppose you will never understand Spyro…"

"Understand what?" Spyro realized that he was getting nowhere. "What happened to you Zach, why are you doing this to us? Just a few days ago you risked your life to try and save Cynder."

Zach became cold and indifferent again "And what a mistake that was, now I have to chase you around the country side."

Spyro started to plead with Zach, maybe he could get through to him. "Zach, I don't know why you're doing this, but if you're being controlled by the darkness, you can fight it." Spyro thought he saw a flicker in Zach's eyes. "You don't have to give in to their power, you're stronger than that. Don't think it's not possible, Cynder was saved from the darkness…" Spyro inched closer as he saw Zach release some of the tension in his muscles. "You can fight it Zach I know you can."

"I… I…" Zach's shoulder's dropped as he shook his head…

"Come on Zach, fight it." Spyro walked up right next to Zach. "You don't have to do this."

Zach snapped his arm up, shoving his talons into Spyro's forearm. Spyro let out a yell as Zach kicked him to the ground a few feet away. "Pretty good acting don't you think Spyro. Here's the thing… I know I don't have to do this, I want to."

Spyro just glared at Zach as he struggled to get up off the ground. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into." Spyro settled himself into a fighting stance, starting to Circle Zach.

"Oh, but I think I do." Zach settled into a fighting stance as well, circling Spyro in the same direction.

Spyro was the first to move this time, lunging at Zach with his claws bared. Zach rolled out of the way as Spyro flew over his head. Spyro dug his claws into the ground, turning himself around as he landed. Zach ran up to Spyro, lashing out with his tail. Spyro ducked under the attack, countering by swinging low at Zach's legs. Zach jumped over Spyro's swing, rolling off to the side. Both dragons stood staring at each other after the small exchange.

"What's the matter Zach, tired already? That was nothing."

Zach just smirked back at Spyro. Zach open his maw like he was going to use some kind of power, but noting seemed to come out…

"Hah! You're out of luck…" but Spyro never fished his sentence. An invisible force slammed into Spyro sending him flying across the garden. Spyro shook his head to clear his mind, what the heck was that. Every time he met Zach, he seemed to have something new to throw at him. Spyro groaned as he got to his feet.

Zach just stood laughing at Spyro as he got off the ground. "You really need to stop underestimating me Spyro, I have powers that you could never dream off…"

"Now where have I heard that before… oh yeah, Malefore, right before I defeated him." Spyro glared back at Zach; there was no way he was going to lose to him again. Spyro spat a fireball at Zach. Zach ducked out of the way sending the fireball crashing though the foliage behind him lighting numerous small fires along the way. He had to be more careful or he might set fire to the entire garden. Instead Spyro spewed a wave of ice at Zach. Zach jumped over the wave of ice, spreading his wings and flying low along the bottom of the tree line. Zach opened his mouth again, but Spyro was ready for it this time, diving out of the way. Spyro watched as dirt and leaves were kicked up along the path of the attack, ending when it slammed into the tree breaking the bark in a conical formation. What was that he was using, Spyro hadn't seen anything like it before. When Spyro looked back to see where Zach had gone, he was nowhere to be seen. This wasn't good. Spyro looked around, hoping that he could spot Zach.

Zach slammed into Spyro from behind again, sending him rolling along the ground. "Face it Spyro, there is now way you can beat me. You can't even get a shot off."

Spyro struggled to get off the ground again, his body sore from taking the blunt of Zach's attacks. "How?"

Zach just laughed at Spyro. " Come one Spyro, I know you're smarter than that, remember what happened the first time you met me, and the time we hid from those apes in the cave? You can't tell me you've forgotten already."

"No I haven't forgotten, but I guess I never knew you fought like a coward."

"Eh, who cares, I may be fighting like that, but it doesn't really matter to me."

Zach disappeared form sight again, leaving Spyro clueless as to what was going to happen next. Spyro's head swiveled form side to side, if anything happened, he was going to get as much time to react to it as possible.

Zach circled Spyro standing in the center of the clearing. This dragon didn't stand a chance. Dragon of legend, Ha! The dragon Zach saw couldn't even put up a decent fight. Zach charged in as Spyro from the side this time, lashing out with his tail and scoring a deep gash down the side of Spyro's hid leg. Spyro turned and swung at the place the Zach had been standing in, but Zach simply moved out of the way, he was swinging blind, this was too easy. Zach backed up and circled Spyro again, watching his eyes dart around the clearing, Spyro really was lucky that he couldn't kill him, because he would be long gone by now if it were up to him. But for now, all he needed was to toy with him a bit more. Zach jumped onto Spyro's back, digging his talons into Spyro's back near his wings. Spyro screamed in pain, thrashing around to try and dislodge Zach. Zach dug his talons deeper into Spyro, sending Spyro into another cycle. Zach was thrown off of Spyro's back, tearing the flesh as he was thrown off. He landed on his back, grunting as he hit the ground.

Spyro saw the dust kick up from where Zach had landed and shot three ice shards at the spot. Two flew harmlessly into the hedges, but the third plunged into Zach's shoulder. Spyro smiled in satisfaction as he saw the blood soaked shard move though the air, Zach wasn't hiding the shard from Spyro's sight, and that meant he knew where he was. Spyro charged a ball of electricity this time, sending it out in front of Zach as he ran along the edge of the clearing. The bolt hit home, smashing into Zach's chest and sending him into the hedge.

Zach struggled out of the hedge. His chest had been scorched from where the bolt had hit and ached with a dull pain, but the blow hadn't been too bad. "Lucky shot." Zach shielded himself again and resumed stalking Spyro around the grounds. Spyro still stood in the center, his head now flowing Zach wherever he went. Zach stopped moving and Spyro stopped too. "He can't see me, he's just acting like he can," Zach thought to himself as he walked around the clearing. Zach ducked as another bolt of electricity passed directly in front of him. "Ok he can see me but how?" Zach looked himself over and noticed that he still had a spike of ice sticking in his shoulder. "Ahh, that would do it." Zach cringed as he pulled the spike from his arm and threw it across the grounds. "Now, back to business."

Spyro watched as the bloody spike flew through the air and clattered to the ground. He had lost his way to follow Zach and he was in trouble again. Spyro cried out again as he was punched in the jaw from nowhere. Spyro staggered backwards from the blow. He needed to find some way to follow Zach. Spyro took a deep calming breath, he could do this. Spyro closed his eyes and opened his ears, fine tuning himself to the sounds of the garden around him. The quiet bubbling of the nearby spring, the wind flowing though the trees above him and the crunching of leaves as someone ran towards him. Spyro dropped to the ground and lashed out with his tail. Spyro smiled in satisfaction as he felt his tail come in contact with something and saw Zach appear again and roll across the ground.

Zach stood to his feet again, both dragons staring each other down, neither willing to make the first move. As Spyro looked at Zach he noticed that the gash that he left on Zach's arm form the last battle was completely gone, even the hole from where he had hit him with a spike had partially healed over, while his own scars hadn't even started to heal over. Zach noticed Spyro looking at him and figured out what he was looking at. "Wondering why I'm in so much better shape than you are Spyro? You remember what I did to your arm and wing don't you? Lets just say it takes less time and energy to work on myself." This was not good; if he had to fight someone who could heal himself, even slowly, he may never win. He had to end this fight soon.

"You know that was pretty clever of you, using you ears instead of your eyes, but I've got a solution to that problem too." Spyro watched as Zach opened his mouth again, a strange ball appearing inside of his mouth. As Zach released the energy, it turned into a distorted wall that moved towards Zach with great speed. Spyro moved too late and was hit full with the full force of the blast, sending him flying back into a tree. As Spyro was hit by the blast, he heard a loud explosion that seemed to rip apart his head from the inside out. Spyro struggled to get up from the ground again, his ears still ringing from whatever had hit him. Spyro stood on all fours, but lost his balance and fell over. Spyro tired again with the same results, he couldn't seem to keep his balance. Every time he stood up, his world seemed to turn on end. Spyro cradled his head, his ears wouldn't stop ringing and he had a massive headache. Spyro brought back his hands and saw blood, but he hadn't bee hit in the head. Spyro wiped his face and found that he had blood trickling from the insides of his ears. Spyro looked up towards Zach. His mouth was moving, but Spyro couldn't hear what he was saying, he couldn't hear anything for that matter except for the ringing in his ears. As Spyro tried to focus the words became clearer, though they sounded distant and clouded, like Zach was talking to him through a pool of mud. He only caught the last of what he was saying.

"… will do that to you, messes with your equilibrium, but you probably can't hear me anyway after being hit by that. Oh well, I need to finish this up, I have other things I have to do today." Zach disappeared from sight again. Spyro knew he wouldn't get anywhere trying to look for him, so he closed his eyes and tried to listen. But whatever Zach had done to him made it impossible to hear. Spyro grunted as he was kicked in the stomach, he used his tail to swipe at where he though Zach was, but Zach caught him across the chest with his talons again. Spyro backed up, trying to get away from where Zach was, but was hit by another wall of energy. Spyro struggled to get off the ground again, his wounds were making it difficult to stand, but he wasn't going to give up. That attack Zach was using… it was so familiar… Spyro's mind wandered back to the devastation they had seen in the villages recently.

"It was you! It was you who destroyed those villages!"

"Bravo Spyro, did you figure that one out all by yourself?"

Spyro's temper flares, he wanted so badly to knock this cocky dragon down a few pegs, but there was no way he could do it alone. He would make Zach pay for all those villages, all the lives he destroyed, and for what he did to Cynder. But he still couldn't do it alone, not in the state he was in now, he needed the guardians help, he just had to get to them. Spyro jumped into the air, flying up through a small gap in the trees above him, his wings catching branches on the way out. Spyro felt his wing membranes tear on one of the branches. It hurt, but this was the only way to get out without having to go through Zach. As Spyro took off he felt the wounds in his back bleed out, blood running down his forelegs and dripping down to the ground below, he was starting to get dizzy from blood loss. Spyro looked over his shoulder back towards the gardens below, he didn't see Zach come up through the trees, but that didn't really mean anything. Spyro flew as fast as his damaged wings would carry him towards the temple. If he could get someone to notice him…

Spyro's thoughts were cut short as Zach plowed into him from above, collapsing his wings and sending him plummeting to the ground. Spyro hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him and possibly cracking once of his ribs, he couldn't quite tell. Spyro pushed himself up as Zach landed a few feet away, simply watching Spyro struggle on the ground.

"Have you had enough yet Spyro?"

Spyro stood an all fours, defiance in his voice. "Not a chance Zach."

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "It's your funeral…" Zach opened his mouth, charging another of his attacks. Zach let lose the attack, the distortion in the air visible again. This time Spyro was ready unleashing a ball of fire to into the attack. The two forces collided in the air between them, exploding with tremendous force. Spyro had to shield himself from the tremendous heat, pulling his wing over his face. As soon as the heat died down, Spyro moved his wing out of the way. As he moved his wing out of the way Spyro saw Zach flying through the space between them. How had he moved so fast? Spyro rolled out of the way as Zach flew over his head bringing his talons down and shredding the edges of Spyro's wings. Spyro turned around as Zach flew over head, launching himself at Zach. Spyro grabbed on to Zach's rear legs, dragging him back to the ground with him. Both dragons landed hard on the ground, Spyro rolling on to Zach after they hit the ground. Spyro pinned Zach to the ground, one of his feet on Zach's wings, the other on his neck. "How does it feel Zach? To be on the other side of the battle?" Zach turned his head and growled at Spyro, but he couldn't turn his head all the way around. "Now Zach, we need to talk." Spyro pushed down on Zach's neck, the dragon let out a gust of air, but otherwise lay still. " I want some answers, and I want them now, and neither of us are going to move until you answer them."

"That's kind hard with you standing on my neck…"

Spyro eased the pressure he w as putting on Zach neck, but not by much. He was going to make this dragon feel the same pain he put Cynder through. Zach breathed in as deeply as he could through his restricted throat.

Spyro stomped on Zach's wings, causing him to grunt. "Now then, I want know Zach, why? Why are you doing this, why did you go from helping us one day, to hunting us down the next?" Spyro was almost on the verge of tears. He had thought he could trust this dragon, now he had thrown his world into chaos. So many emotions rolled into one moment, it was almost more than he could bear.

Zach just started laughing, his laughter aggravating Spyro more than anything else. "Spyro, if you don't understand by now, you never will. I chose this, for my own reasons. What part of that don't you understand?"

Spyro yelled back at Zach. "No you didn't. People don't just change like that…"

"Then maybe you didn't know me…"

Spyro hung his head. Maybe there wasn't anything he could do. "Come on Zach, I'm taking you back to the temple." He was going to do something about what he did to Cynder, and if not, he was going to answer for what he did "and you are going to help Cynder…"

"I don't think so…" Zach turned his head towards the ground. Spyro just stood there. What was Zach talking about, there was no way he could get out of this position. Spyro turned his attention to what Zach was doing, but figured out what was going on too late.

Both dragons flew through the air as the shock wave from Zach's mouth impacted the ground. Spyro tried to keep a hold of Zach, but slipped, tearing through Zach's skin as he flew through the air. Spyro landed on the ground hard, his ears were ringing again and his headache had come back stronger than ever. Spyro lay on the ground confused and disoriented, he couldn't get up. Spyro felt a talon press against his back, he turned his head to see Zach towering over him. How had he gotten up so fast? He had taken the majority of the blast. Spyro struggled to get out, but Zach brought his talons down on Spyro's wings again. Spyro cried out in pain and stopped struggling; he wasn't getting out of this one.

"You should just let her die Spyro... After all the trouble she's caused, the lives she's ruined. Yours included"

"Never!"

"Admit it though, she has been the cause of your problems for years. If it weren't for her, you may have lived a normal life. She is the one that terrorized the dragons, keeping them from looking for you when you were a child, who knows how many she killed. She was the one that lured you out to the well of souls to release the dark master. She played on your emotions Spyro, she knew how to get you out of the temple alone. She was the one who ended up helping you find your 'darker' side. Heck, she almost killed you once… do you really think that she deserves to be saved?" Zach was taunting Spyro. His words making Spyro's skin crawl.

"She's changed! I would think someone like you could understand something like that."

"Sure Spyro, just wait for her to stab you in the back again, then see how you feel about her. After all 'People don't just change like that.'"

Spyro couldn't take it anymore; this dragon had no right to make accusations. He was going to pay, for what he did to those villages, for what Zach did to him, and for what he did to Cynder. Spyro trashed around underneath Zach's feet. He cringed as he felt his wing membranes tear again underneath the pressure of Zach's foot, but it didn't matter. He was free for now. Spyro wrapped his tail around Zach's leg, yanking it out from underneath him. Spyro followed up with a blast of earth that slammed straight into Zach's chest, sending him cartwheeling across the open plain. Spyro shot into the air, ignoring the pain caused by his numerous wounds. Spyro spat a volley of fireball at Zach who had rolled to a stop. Zach was unable to avoid them, taking the full force of all three.

Spyro landed on the ground again, his body almost giving way underneath him. He looked over too the new crater that Zach had been in. There was no way he could still be conscious after that. As the smoke cleared Spyro growled in annoyance. Zach was struggling to get up in the center of the crater, scorch marks covering his body, his legs and back badly burned. This guy just wouldn't give up.

This ended now! Spyro lunged at Zach's chest, talons bared, determined to run him through. Time seemed to slow as Spyro flew through the air. Spyro's face contorted into a snarl, his talons extended and pointed straight at Zach chest. Zach's eyes went wide with surprise as Spyro flew at him. There was no way he could get out of the way. The gap between the two dragons closed to feet then inches.

Spyro slammed into Zach, knocking him up onto his hind legs. But Spyro's talons never came into contact with Zach. Instead, a ruby red snake had appeared around Zach's neck in the space between Zach and Spyro. Zach and Spyro both gasped in surprise as Spyro's talons broke into the snake, cracking it down the center. Their bodies stiffened as red lightning coursed from the snake through both their bodies. Spyro felt the energy coming from the necklace swell to an enormous level, erupting in a ball of red energy. The necklace released the pulse of energy, sending both dragons flying away form each other. Spyro was sent crashing backwards through a tree, splintering it to pieces before crashing into a second one behind it. Spyro slumped to the ground and coughed up blood. Something had broken somewhere in his ribs and he couldn't get a full breath of air, but this wasn't over yet. Spyro struggled to his feet, what just happened? He hadn't seen anything like that before, there was so much power… how had Zach got a hold of something like that? Spyro struggled to his feet still coughing up blood. He looked across the clearing to see a large crater in the ground where he and Zach had just been, farther away Zach stood, limping away into the forest. Zach turned to yell something at Spyro, even with his troubled hearing and the space in between them; he still heard the spoken words. His heart stopped as they registered in his mind.

"You better go say your last good-byes to Cynder… because there is now way I will save her for you now…"

Spyro dragged his body across the clearing to where he had seen Zach disappear into the woods. He had to catch him before he went too far. Spyro got to the edge of the woods and sank down in despair. The white dragon was nowhere to be found.

Spyro let out a roar of anguish that shook the ground for miles around.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Oh Crap!

Spyro stood sobbing at the edge of the forest, tears running down his face. He let out another roar slamming his feet against the ground, sending out shock waves of energy. Why, why did this always happen to him? Spyro collapsed onto the ground.

"Spyro!"

He heard his name come from someone behind him, it was probably one of the guardians, but it really didn't matter. A dragon landed somewhere behind Spyro, heavy footsteps coming up to stand next to him. "Spyro, what happened?"

Spyro remained silent, his body completely nub form the injuries he sustained while fighting and the shock of what had happened.

"Spyro?"

Terador walked around to look Spyro in the face. Tears streamed down the young dragon's face as he lay on the ground, staring off into the distance his mouth was open as if he were trying to say something, but he continued to lay there not saying a ward. "Spyro are you alright?" Terador was beginning to get desperate "Spyro!"

Spyro turned his head to look at Terador, he blinked as tears continued to stream down his face. After a moment he opened his mouth to speak, his words came out broken and slow as he tired to explain. "I… It… It was Zach… again."

Terador looked Spyro over for injuries. He had numerous small scrapes and gashes along his body and he seemed to be bleeding from somewhere on his head, but the worst of his injuries seemed to be the massive tears down his wing membranes. Terador was convinced that Spyro wasn't in any life threatening danger, but something more must have happened to make him act this way. "Spyro, lets get you back to the temple, you need your rest. We don't want you looking like this when Cynder gets better now do you?"

Terador shrank back as he realized his error. Spyro broke into another fit of tears, sobs wracking his body. Spyro looked at the ground, tears running off his face and splashing to the ground beneath his feet. "She isn't going to get better and you know it. She has gotten progressively worse every day. She is barely even breathing now!"

Terador looked sadly at the dragon below him, he had given up so much of his life to save the world, and now he had to suffer even more. He just didn't deserve it, but what could he do? "Come on Spyro, let's get you back to the temple." Terador balanced himself and scooped up Spyro in one of his massive paws. Spyro immediately curled up onto himself, but nothing could shake the cold he felt.

Terador beat his powerful wings and gently lifted of into the air. As he flew back to the temple, he felt Spyro's sobs slowly turn to coughs, before disappearing completely into the rhythmic breathing of sleep. The constant fighting was taking its toll on him.

As Terador winged his way towards the temple, he let a solitary tear run down his face and fall to the ground below. Spyro had saved them all when all hope had been lost; didn't he deserve something better then this? Terador tucked Spyro closer to his chest and continued his flight back to the temple.

As he got closer to the temple Terador noticed Volteer and Cryil standing on the outside platform, watching him as he approached. Terador circled once before landing gently on the platform below, handing  
Spyro over to Cryil. Cyril left to take Spyro back inside the temple, leaving Volteer and Terador out on the platform.

Volteer glanced over his shoulder at Cyril before addressing Terador. "What happened? Where did you find him? And is he going to be ok? I mean…"

"Easy Volteer," Terador placed a hand on his friend, stopping his rapid-fire questions. "I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think Spyro went out after Zach again."

"But why would he do that? He's been so week after the past week, especially after his last run-in with Zach. Why would he deliberately go after Zach, especially after you deliberately told him not to?"

"I don't know, but when I think about it, I'm not so sure that he went after Zach, he was near the temple when I found him. I don't think he was so much after Zach as it was Zach after him."

"But why would he do that? Nothing he does seems to make sense. First he appears out of nowhere and helps to save Cynder, then turns around and tries to kill her but leaves Spyro relatively unscathed when he could have possibly killed him. Now he goes after Spyro and almost kills him before running away when he has the upper hand. I just don't get it.

Terador almost smirked at his friend's confusion, but the circumstances put a sour note on the humor. "I don't quite understand it either, but I do think the Zach wants something from Spyro, I just don't understand what."

"What if they wanted him to release Malefore? That would explain why they were after him."

Terador nodded in agreement, "yes, but that doesn't explain why Zach would help Spyro save Cynder in the first place, or why they almost killed Spyro the first time."

"Nothing seems to make sense. Maybe we should go ask Spyro about what happened, he could probably shed some light on what has been happening."

Terador let out a heavy sigh as he turned to his friend, "nothing like this ever makes sense, but we should let Spyro rest for a while, he's been though a lot."

Volteer and Terador walked solemnly back into the temple, stopping to stare into the reflection pool. After a few minutes, Cyril joined them. Both dragons turned their attention to him as he entered the room. Cyril let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.

"Spyro seems to be stable, just worn out. I placed him in the same room as Cynder so we could take care of both of the easier…"

"And what about Cynder."

Cryil waited a few moments before answering. "… She… is not doing well. He wound hasn't stopped bleeding yet and her pulse and breathing have both slowed to dangerous rates. She was cold and shivering again so I covered her with more blankets, but I'm not sure what else we can do to help her. It may only be a matter of time till…"

"Don't speak like that!" Terador pointed a talon at Cyril, anger evident in his voice. "There is still hope for her."

Terador put down his talon and let his head droop. "I'm sorry Cyril, it's just I cant stand the thought of losing either one of them."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, we are all on edge with everything that's going on, and Cynder's state hasn't helped things any. But have faith, if there is anyone who could pull through, I'm sure it would be these two dragons."

The guardians stood in silence for a while longer, letting the sounds of nature wash throughout the room, calming their anger and putting their minds at peace. But the peace was short lived; there were things to be done and dragons to be cared for. Terador finally broke the silence.

"I want you two to go out and look for Zach, if he was wounded, he may still be around the temple somewhere, I need to stay here and make sure that Spyro doesn't try to slip away again."

"Very well, what should we do if we find him?"

"Try to bring him back here, if nothing else he can be punished for all the trouble he has caused Spyro and Cynder" Terador's hand curled into a fist. If he got a hold of Zach, he would get some answers from that young dragon.

Zach limped through the woods, that last fight with Spyro had taken more out of him then expected. His front left leg was broken, casing him to wince every time he put pressure on it. Most of his body was covered in small burns or scorch marks from Spyro's fire attacks. His wings had bruises and small tears in the membranes, nothing too serious. But the dried blood from his other wounds had plastered them to his side, forcing him to walk on the ground from fear of what might happen if he tried to dislodge them. He had used up most of his energy in the fight with Spyro and had used the rest of it to heal his bleeding ears and major lacerations over his body from Spyro's talons, so he was stuck with the injuries he had until he could rest and recover. But for now he needed to keep moving away from the temple. There was no telling if Spyro had been able to follow him or if the guardians were out searching for him as well.

Zach craned his neck to look over his shoulder, straining it against the red sake like collar wrapped around his neck. The thing hadn't disappeared since his fight with Spyro and made moving very difficult, keeping him from turning his neck in its full range of motion. Zach looked closer at the strange devise around his neck. There was a long crack running down the center of the ruby like crystal with small red streaks of lightning sparking from time to time. He couldn't even remember what this thing was for, or how it had gotten around his neck, and now it was being a nuisance.

But nuisance or not he needed to keep moving. Spyro was probably out for him with a vengeance, and there was no way he could take him like this. He may have pummeled Spyro in the last fight, but Spyro had scored just as many hits on him, and Spyro was know to do drastic things, so chasing after him wasn't out of the question.

Zach winced as a sharp pain shot through his skull. Why was he doing this anyway, helping the forces of darkness? It wasn't like him. Zach shook his head and the pain seemed to go away. He was doing what needed to be done. That purple dragon and his girlfriend were more than a nuisance, they needed to be taken care of one way or another. Besides, he was on the wining side now.

Zach's breath caught in his throat as the pain shot through his head again. Why was he doing this? Wasn't Spyro supposed to be his friend after all? He openly trusted him to find Cynder, and he had repaid them by stabbing her in the back when they least expected it.

Zach fell to the ground clutching his head, why wouldn't the pain go away. After a few moments on the ground, Zach's head cleared allowing him to stand on his own feet again. He didn't need Spyro anyway, he was so high and mighty… Zach started walking again, headed as far away from the temple as his legs could carry him. As he walked he glanced back down at the red collar around his neck. The thing was still a nuisance. As he watched, a small chip dislodged itself from the rest of the necklace and fell to the ground, shattering in a small explosion of sparks.

Zach just grunted and continued walking, who cares if the stupid thing broke; he didn't even remember what it did anyway. But as he walked, the pain started to gnaw at him again. First a slight nudging in the back of his head, then a pain that started to cloud his vision. Zach fell to the ground screaming as the pain built up to a blinding while light behind his eyes. Something was wrong, but not with his body, something was going on in his mind that he couldn't quite understand.

What had he done? He had almost killed Cynder! It didn't make any sense, why would he do something like that. It had felt so satisfying at the time, but now it felt so wrong. And Spyro, he had attacked the one person who had openly trusted him so far.

As Zach continued to writhe in pain on the ground, small bolts of red lightning began to shoot out of the snake around his neck, shooting up into the air before arcing back down into the ground around him. The necklace around his neck cracked again, breaking into four different pieces but remaining connected around his neck.

Zach struggled to his feet, something wasn't right here. Part of him wanted to keep pushing on away from the temple and the other wanted the thing taken off his neck, and he didn't seem to have any control over his body. Zach forced one foot forward as the streaks of red electricity turned from the sky and started to course through his body down into the ground.

Zach screamed out in pain again as his insides seemed to be lit on fire from the energy emanating from the necklace. Something was definitely not right, and whatever the thing was that encircled his neck was the cause of it. Zach reached up with one hand and grabbed at the necklace, crying out again as his hand was seared by a surge of energy. He pulled at the necklace, but even chipped and broken, it wouldn't budge.

Zach started to lose consciousness as another pulse of energy from the necklace surged through his body, but he would not lose this fight.

Zach stood on his hind legs and spread out his wings in defiance, letting out an anguished roar. The necklace pulsed again, bringing Zach to his knees, but he otherwise remained standing. Zach tore at the necklace with his hand with all the strength he had remaining.

Zach watched as a small sphere of red energy formed at the center of the necklace, spreading out until it enclosed the entirety of his neck. Zach let out one last defiant roar as shafts of light started to pierce the sphere of red energy, streaking off into the distance. At last the ball of energy collapsed onto itself, the resulting explosion shattering the necklace and flinging Zach through the air, smashing him into a tree which broke apart before flying into another one directly behind it.

Zach groaned from the impact and tried to sit himself upright, but his body was too broken and too weak to even lift his head. The now familiar darkness of unconsciousness crept around the edges of his vision, but Zach didn't care, he didn't have the energy to fight it, and sleep would be welcome. As Zach lay losing consciousness against the tree, he felt his mind clear as if lifted from a fog. But as his mind cleared, darkness clouded his vision. Zach let a solitary tear fall to the ground for all that he had done before falling into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

Spyro awoke inside the temple again, lying on a soft pillow in a dimly lit room. Spyro's head spun from the recent battles, keeping his mind from getting a full grasp of what was going on. Spyro tried to stand and stretch his wings but fell back on to his pillow. So much for standing, he would just have to lay here for now. Spyro looked himself over and found that his wings were bandaged to his sides and his other cuts and scrapes had been washed clean and were covered in ointment. As he lay there trying to clear his mind, bits and pieces of the recent battle started to come back to him. Getting attacked, Zach's newest power, and the vow he made to never return for Cynder…

Spyro fought back the tears as an overwhelming wave of sadness washed over him. Cynder. Spyro looked around the room he was in again and noticed he was in the same room as Cynder, she was laying where he had last seen her on a pile of cushions over against the wall.

Spyro struggled to his feet, ignoring the queasiness he felt from standing up. He walked over and placed a hand on Cynder's side. He couldn't even feel the rise and fall of her breathing. The only indication she was alive came from the shallow wheezing of her breathing. Spyro lay don and curled up around Cynder, Careful to avoid aggravating her injury. Her body felt so cold against his. Spyro let out a shudder and curled himself tighter around her body, laying his head across her back, one of his wings caressing her head.

Spyro felt his tears start to flow as he lay crying over the body of his dying best friend. She didn't deserve this; even after all she had done in her past, she still didn't deserve this. Spyro took Cynder in his arms and held her tightly, holding on to her as if he could keep her tethered to life by his will alone. If only he had told her sooner, would things have turned out differently? Would she be here dying in his arms if he hadn't taken her to the secret place in the gardens that night?

Spyro cried harder, his tears falling from his face and running down Cynder's back. He loved her, and now she was being taken from him. Everyone he had ever loved, ever trusted, seemed to be torn away form him. And it wall all his fault, if he hadn't put them in the situations he did, maybe Ignitus would still be alive, and maybe Cynder wouldn't be here dying in his arms…

No. It was not his fault. Malefore had been the cause of Ignitus' death, and Zach was the one who had done this to Cynder.

Spyro stifled his crying as he heard footsteps enter the room. Spyro turned to see who had entered, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Terador stood standing in the dim light of the room, his eyes brimming with tears as well.

"I'm sorry Spyro, we did all we could, but… it's all up to Cynder now. But she's a strong dragon Spyro, she'll pull through." Terador sniffed as he finished, desperately trying to hold back his tears.

Spyro just looked at Terador for a moment before replying in a sad low voice. "You can stop bending the truth Terador, don't think I don't know what's going to happen…. I know she is a strong dragoness… but there are some things even she can't recover from."

Terador let out a heavy sigh as he turned away from the two young dragons. "Very well, I'll leave you alone for now. I'll be just outside the door if you need anything." Terador left the room, not wanting Spyro to see the tears that were now steadily falling from his eyes.

Spyro looked down at the dragoness before him again. Cynder coughed in an attempt to get some of the blood out of her lugs, but she merely gurgled and started to choke on her own blood. Spyro held Cynder close to him as she continued to gasp and choke on her own blood, wondering if this would be his final minutes with her.

After a few moments Terador stuck his head through the doorway, concern written on his face. But Cynder finally quieted down, settling back into shallow wheezing breaths. Spyro released his hold on her but remained curled around her.

Cynder's face was contorted in pain. Her wound and her lungs were causing her obvious pain. She had been asleep for days now, and he didn't think she was going to get better. Her only hope was Zach, and that was never going to happen now.

This was all Zach's fault, ever since he showed up, things had simply gotten worse from what they had been. He would get that dragon for what he did, and Spyro had a good idea of where that dragon was headed…

Spyro looked over towards the door, Terador now lay sleeping across the entrance, blocking the exit. There was no way he could get out without waking the guardian. If the guardians figured out what he was doing, they would do everything they could to stop him. There had to be another way out of here.

Spyro looked around the room and quickly found what he was looking for.

Up about double Spyro's height was a small stone window. It was big enough that an adult dragon could easily slip their head through, which meant he might be able to slip through it himself.

Spyro uncurled himself from around Cynder, kissing her on her forehead once he was standing. Spyro whispered in her ear, hopping there was some way she could hear him "I love you Cynder…"

Spyro walked over to the wall near the window. It was up high enough that he would have to fly up to the window to get out. There was a small ledge at the base of the windowsill that should give him enough leverage to worm his way through and balance himself. As Spyro spread his wings to fly, they caught inside the bandages wrapped around his body. They needed to come off. Spyro groaned as he started to pull at the bandages with his teeth, the bandages coming off wet with fresh blood. Once he dropped the blood soaked bandages to the ground, Spyro examined the damage to his wings. The were still torn and shredded from his last fight with Zach and there was still a hole in one of his wings, but all his injuries had healed enough to barely connect the membranes back together. It would be painful, and he probably shouldn't but he could fly.

Spyro spread his wings out wide and flapped once, his wings stinging but holding together.

"I might as well do this before I lose the nerve…" Spyro pushed his wings down hard as he jumped off the ground. Sending a shock down his spine and throughout his body. Spyro climbed just high enough to clamp on to the edge of the window, his talons digging into the rock. Spyro scrambled along the wall, using his wings to push himself the rest of the way up into the window.

Spyro stood panting for a moment, letting his body recover from the pain caused by his wings. He'd be in trouble if he had to do that again soon, but hopefully he wouldn't until his wings healed a little more.

Spyro looked off into the distance towards his destination. It was a straight shot from here. Spyro felt a pang of guilt as he spread his damaged wings and took to the air. He hated doing things behind the guardians back, and this time he didn't even have a good reason for doing it… but he didn't really care this time. Zach had ruined his chance at a happy life, so he was going to ruin Zach's life. Spyro beat his broken wings, ignoring the pain from the striped membranes, and took off towards the city of Warfang.

Cyril and volteer flew through the air, combing the ground for traces of Zach, but so far they hadn't had any luck. Volteer had suggested that they split up to cover more ground, but Cyril was worried about a confrontation if they found Zach, so they decided to stick together.

Volteer didn't see what the big deal about this white dragon; he shouldn't be any match for a guardian. But after seeing what he had done to Spyro and Cynder, he wasn't so sure. Volteer turned his head over to look at Cyril who was flying over his left shoulder.

"Maybe we should turn back now, we have looked all over, and he could be anywhere by now"

Cyril replied, yelling over the wind as they flew through the air. "Maybe your right, but m not giving up. We need to find him, for Spyro."

Volteer simply nodded his head. He knew how dire the situation was, but there was only so much that they could do. Volteer continued to scan the forests below as he flew above them, looking for any sign of Zach.

They had flown in ever widening circles starting at the temple and widening out from there, but that had been almost an hour ago.

Volteer and Cyril flew back over the Silver River, signifying that they had made another pass around the temple. "Come on Cyril, lets head back to the temple, there's no telling where Zach went, he could be half way to Warfang by now."

Volteer turned back towards the temple, expecting Cyril to follow him, but when he glanced over his shoulder, the guardian was flying in place, looking off into the distance. Volteer back winged and turned around to see why the ice guardian wasn't following him. "Cyril, I know you want to find him, but it's no use anymore."

"No it's not that Volteer, there's something over there in the forest, it looks like red lightning."

"Red lightning?" Volteer muttered to himself, "I've never heard of such a thing." Volteer looked over in the direction that Cyril was pointing, but saw nothing. "You're seeing things Cyril, there's nothing there."

"I know I saw something." Before Volteer could say anything, Cyril took off flying franticly in the direction he had seen the 'red lightning'.

"Cyril! Wait!" Volteer took off after his friend and fellow guardian.

Cyril kept up a frantic beet as he shot off across the forest, Volteer flowing at a more balanced pace. "Cyril" what was up with him? He had never acted this way ever before. "Cyril!"

Cyril finally stopped his frantic flying and flew in lazy circles above the forest. Volteer flew up next to his friend and noticed that he was crying.

"There has to be something we can do, anything. Spyro and Cynder have done so much for us, they deserve something in return." Cyril sputtered as clouds of frost streamed from between his teeth.

Volteer tried to calm his friend down. "I know you mean well Cyril, but there is nothing we can do here anymore."

"But I know I saw something coming from this area…. There has to be something…"

"Maybe you're just seeing things, it's been a hard week on all of us."

Cyril dropped his head. "You're right Volteer, let's get back to the temple."

Both dragons turned back towards the temple, but this time it was Volteer who stopped short. Something wasn't right here, there was a change of ions in the air, but it wasn't natural.

"What is it now volteer?"

Volteer just tackled Cyril out of the sky as a red streak of lightning coursed through where he had been seconds before.

"Now do you believe me?" Cyril was seemingly unfazed while volteer was shocked by what he had just witnesses.

"I… I suppose I do. Let's go see where that came from." The two dragon guardians took off in the direction that volteer had felt the bolt come from. Volteer noticed scorch marks in the trees underneath them and decided to follow them, leading them deeper into the forest below.

"What is that?" Terador was started by Cyril's statement, causing him to look up from the charred path he was following on trees below. He almost fell from the sky from the sight. In a clearing up a head, a large ball of energy had manifested and was swelling to an enormous size. "By the ancestors!"

As quickly as the ball of energy had appeared, it collapsed back onto itself, exploding in a furry of shock waves and lightning. Both guardians dove out of the way as bolts of lightning streaked past them, Volteer's wingtips grazing the tops of the trees as he rolled out of the way.

Both dragons righted themselves, their heads turned towards the source of the blast. "What was that? In all my years, I have never seen anything like that."

"Neither have I… maybe we should go check it out…"

"Agreed."

Volteer and Cyril continued their flight to the clearing up ahead. From the sky they could see the entirety of the clearing. Mist and smoke concealed the earth at the center of the clearing, while the edges were covered with rubble and charred earth. The trees and shrubs on the edge of the clearing seemed to have been blown back by a wind of incredible force.

Volteer and Cyril landed jut outside the smoke in the center of the clearing. Volteer walked over to explore through the smoke, while Cyril went off in a different direction. Volteer stopped when his stepped on the black charred earth, it was warm. Volteer cautiously continued through the smoke, until he came to what looked to be a lip of a crater, the heat under his talons was becoming unbearable, starting to sear his scales. He wasn't going to be able to stay here much longer. Volteer stuck his head up over the edge of the crater, he was immediately met by a wake of searing heat, drying his eyes and baking the scales on his face. Volteer endured the heat to look down into the crater. It wasn't very deep, maybe only fifteen feet in diameter, but was charred completely black by the explosion. Small red bolts of lightning jumped from red crystals embedded in the side of the crater, the crystals disintegrating after letting off a bolt. Finally, Volteer couldn't take the heat anymore and was forced to turn back; he wasn't a fire dragon after all. What force could possibly contain enough energy to cause the display of power they had seen? And this crater, that was something else. Volteer made his way out of the mist, looking around for Cyril once he could see again.

"Volteer… Volteer, you may want to come see this."

Volteer followed his friend's voice around the mist to where he was standing on the edge of the clearing. Cyril was standing by a break in the tree line where one of the trees had been blown to pieces, leaving wood splinters all over the ground. He seemed to be starring at something in the forest, but it was blocked form Volteer's sight by the tree line.

"I don't believe it…"

"Cyril what are you talking about." Volteer rounded the corner, bringing what Cyril was staring at into view. Zach was lying unconscious on the ground, no more than ten feet away.

"You're right Cyril, I don't believe it."

Both guardians took cautious steps towards Zach, keeping their senses trained to catch any hint of hostilities or an ambush. Volteer stopped over Zach while Cyril kept watch. So many different emotions welled up inside him as he looked down at the white dragons before him. Anger, sorrow, disappointment, and maybe even pity. Zach was beaten and bruised with a large gash on the back of his head, whatever happened, he hadn't done this to himself.

But that didn't matter, what he had done to Cynder… that was his fault and he deserved everything and more for what he had done. Volteer prodded Zach with one of his long talons. The white dragon only flopped over in response, letting out a low moan. Well he wasn't dead, Volteer wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They might as well take him back to the temple, which is what they had set out to do in the first place. Not having to confront Zach was a bonus.

Volteer scooped Zach up into one of his claws, not making any attempt to be gentle with the young dragon. Zach's body remained limp in his grip, his head hanging off to the side of Voltaire's talon, blood running down the side of his head. Volteer turned to Cyril who nodded, and both dragons took off into the sky. There was no need to spend any more time in that forest then necessary. The dragon guardians turned back towards the temple. It was ten minutes flight from where they were. Hopefully they could make it in time.

As they flew back to the temple, Volteer looked down at Zach. The young dragon was tossing and turning, a look of pain written on his face. Volteer let out a heavy sigh, everyone had their problems, but that didn't mean he needed to be cruel to them. Volteer rearranged Zach as he flew through the air, tucking him up under his arm with Zach curled into a ball, his head on Volteer's shoulder. After a while, Zach ceased his constant tossing and turning, but Volteer could still hear a soft whimpering coming from below.

Zach woke up in a dark damp cave. He had chains pinning his wings to his sided, and another chain wrapped around his neck, hands, and feet, preventing movement of any kind and chaining him to the floor. This could not be good. Zach tried to take in his surroundings, but the dark atmosphere and the limited movement of his head made it hard to see anything. From what he could tell, he was in some sort of a lab. The most noticeable features were the numerous shelves that lined the walls. They were all filled with different beakers, chemicals, and books, all of them strewn about in no particular order. Off in one corner of Zach's vision he noticed something that looked like a worktable. Various papers were strewn about the table as if someone had thrown them about looking for something. A beaker over a flame sat in one corner of the desk, boiling a bluish liquid almost to overflowing. A single candle in the center of the table served to illuminate the desk, casting ire flickering shadows on the far wall from Zach. The floor of the room was made of solid stone sloping slightly towards the center of the room where a circular drain sat covered in what looked like blood.

Zach swallowed hard as he realized his situation. The apes hadn't killed him back in the collapsed tunnel, they had taken him here for who knows why.

Zach thrashed at his chains, trying to wiggle out of them, or at least loosen their hold. The chains cut into his skin, cutting deep grooves around his ankles and neck. Zach stopped thrashing and tried to pull himself out of the chains. Nothing, they had budged an inch. Zach shook his body again, trying to break out of his chains, but all he did was deepen the groves in his wrists and neck. The fresh wounds stung, blood running down his shackles, but he really didn't care, getting out of this was far more important. Zach started to try again, but heard footsteps coming down the hall behind him. He tried to turn his head to look at the door, but once again the chains prevented him from moving his head op much as an inch.

The footsteps came down the hall and seemed to stop directly behind Zach. He heard a door open behind him then heavy shuffling footsteps as someone entered the room. The footsteps shuffled over to somewhere behind Zach, where he heard different clunks and scrapes as things were dropped and rearranged on a table behind him.

"Stupid ogres… would think they'd have learned to respect my stuff"

Zach watched out of the corner of his eyes as a strange ape walked into view. He was smaller than most apes, only coming up to the shoulder of an average ape. And instead of being large and burly, the ape had very small limbs that didn't look like they could swing a sword, much less pick one up. He, at least Zach was assuming it was a he because of the voice, walked with a stoop and was constantly muttering to himself. His fur was musk gray and was tattered and grungy all over his body. He also had patches of fur missing on his entire left arm as well as splotches on his back and right leg. It was not a pretty sight by any means. Zach just stared as the aped put down his tings and turned to face Zach.

"Ah! You're awake. Good… now we can finally start." The ape's voice was small and weak, almost weasel like, but it had an air of intelligence to it. Zach didn't like it. The ape turned to grab something from his desk behind Zach. "Oh but wait, he wanted to see you in person didn't he. I best not make him angry…" the ape turned back to address Zach, "you know you've caused him a lot of trouble. You should be thankful you're not dead."

The ape left the chamber, leaving Zach alone with the darkness, but returned moments later with a much larger ape in tow.

"Here he is, awake as promised."

The large ape walked into Zach's field of vision and immediately punched him in the gut.

Zach wheezed as the air was forced out of him.

"You know, you're far more trouble than you're worth. But for some reason, the master wants you alive. If it were up to me, I would have killed you and that black dragon when we had the chance. Dragons are nothing but worms."

Zach lay on the ground coughing, the chains restricting his airflow as he tried to regain his breath.

"Simian! How long until we can begin?" The larger ape, obviously a commander, was yelling at the smaller one, watching Zach out of the corner of his eye.

The small ape turned his from his workbench to the larger one. "I have all the materials ready. We can begin immediately."

"Good, I don't want to keep the master waiting any longer, now hurry up and begin" The larger ape waver his hand over his shoulder as he turned to walk out of the room. "And you'd better not screw this one up. I'm fed up with your failed experiments."

The smaller ape watched the commander leave the room and stood for a moment watching the door. Satisfied that the ape wasn't going to return the ape left in the room turned his attention back to Zach. "Now that he is gone, I can finally start." The ape once again turned to one of the workbenches out of Zach field of vision. Zach heard the ape mutter to himself as he seemed to be rummaging through a bag. After a while he stopped and Zach started to hear different tools being pound together.

"So… what's your name dragon?"

The question caught Zach off guard, he didn't really expect for anyone to be asking him questions. They all seemed to have their own agenda that didn't involve talking to him. But the most unsettling thing was the ape's tone of voice, not threatening or harsh, but about as far from friendly as Zach thought possible.

"Not going to tell me he? Well it won't matter, you'll tell me eventually."

That did it. Usually when someone said something like that, it involved torture or something along those lines, and there was no way he was sticking around to find out. Zach trashed at his chains again, not really caring that the ape was right there. The bindings cut even deeper into his flesh, coating them with blood.

Zach received a blow to the back of his head for his trouble, stunning him. "Now stop struggling, I can't have you going and hurting yourself."

Zach shook his head, clearing the specks out of the corners of his vision. The ape had started rummaging through the desk again, muttering to himself again. Zach tried to listen but couldn't quite hear what he was saying. He needed to get out of here. Zach looked carefully at the bindings around his wrist. The shackle was clamped tightly around his wrist, there was no way he was getting it of, but the ring connecting the shackle to the chains around his body was rusty and warped. He may be able to break the shackle off of the chain. Zach but a steady pressure against the chain, the bindings cutting deeper into his arm, but he just ignored the pain. Zach watched in satisfaction as the link between the chain and shackle continued to warp. Zach gave one last forceful tug, and the shackle broke away, the link falling to the ground with a soft clatter. Zach flexed his wrist to circulate blood through his tired limb. Now if he could just get his other arm before the ape came back…

Zach turned to his other arm but was stopped when someone grabbed his wrist… "Ah ah ah… none of that now, can't have you getting away. That would be the end of me."

Zach turned to see the ape holding his wrist. He tried to pull away but the ape held him fast, he had a surprisingly strong grip for an ape of his size.

"Now hold still, there's no way you're getting out of this, so you might as well make it as painless as possible." The ape grumbled to himself as he pulled a small green gem from his pocket. It looked like a miniature version of the large on he had found in the forest. "now I wish I didn't have to give you back some of your power, but for some reason this will only work if you still hold some elemental energy." The ape forced Zach's hand open and closed it around the green gem. Zach felt the small amount of energy flow through his body from the small gem in his hand. But instead of staying in his body, he felt the energy redirect itself to his bloodied limbs. Zach watched in as much shock as the ape standing in front of him as his chafed and bloodied limbs healed completely over.

"Hmm… I heard you had some power. You know, I've always wanted to know where you dragons got your power from, but I guess you can't be that lucky victim, the master wants you alive."

Zach eyes widened as he realized what the ape was hinting at. "You're disgusting."

"Ah so we speak now? And no, not disgusting, just curious… inquisitive… I like to know how things work." The ape gestured to the wall behind him where Zach realized there were jars of different body parts, organs, and even a dissected mole.

Zach's stomach heaved and Zach wretched on the ground. This ape was disgusting, the worst. He could understand science. But this went far past that. "Who are you?"

"I'm flattered you asked. My name is Simian."

Zach had head the large ape call him that earlier, but he thought it was more of an insult than anything else. "Well Simian, know this, when I get out of here, you're one of the first people I'm coming after." Zach tried to make his voice sound as threatening as possible, growing in the apes face at the end. He almost smiled in satisfaction as he saw the ape take a hesitant step away from him, but the ape soon regained his composure.

"I'm not too worried about that. See… you're never walking out of he by your own free will again."

"And just how do you plan on making me do that? Because if you haven't noticed, I don't like you."

"oh, I have my ways." Simian turned and pulled something out from behind him. when he turned back around, he was holding a crimson red snake in his hand. Zach immediately recognized it as one similar to the magical chain that had held Spyro and Cynder together, but those had been green. Zach could feel the immense amount of power emanating from the gem in front of him; this could not be good.

"You should feel honored, this is the only item of its kind in existence. Once it's on, it can never come off, and you will be under our complete control." Simian just smirked at Zach. "Enough chat, lets get this over with." Simian reached out with his hand holding the red crystalline snake. As the snake neared him, it seemed to come alive in the ape's hand, swaying and twisting in the air in front of Zach.

Zach swiped at the snake with his free hand in an attempt to knock the snake away, but Simian caught his arm before it could even get close to the snake. Zach started to thrash and pull away form the snake, but Simian pushed forward undaunted.

The snake leapt from Simian's hand, making a full circle around his neck before connecting with itself and sending the head up the back of Zach's neck. Zach felt a bolt of pain shoot up the nerves in his neck and cried out as the snake sunk its fangs into the back of his neck. Simian just watched with a smile on his face.

Zach's head seemed to explode as foreign thoughts entered his mind. Thoughts of anger and hatred, death and destruction, all of these directed at Spyro. Zach fought the destructive thoughts as he tried to retain control of his mind, but was slowly losing control of his conscious mind. Then the most powerful of the urges entered his min, one of complete loyalty to the master.

Zach cried out one last time before losing his conscious mind to the surrounding darkness.

"So what do we do now?"

"We well just have to wait, he will probably be out for at least another hour."

"Have you tried waking him up?"

"Yes, but nothings worked, he's out cold."

"That doesn't surprise me, seeing what kind of injuries he had."

"I wonder what caused him such injuries, he couldn't have walked that far if Spyro had done that to him."

"Yes, we saw some kind of a crater where we found Zach. I have never seen anything like it."

"Hmm, curious… strange things have been going on since Zach showed up…"

"Yes… I still wish I knew why… he seemed so… I don't know… trustworthy."

"We all thought he was…"

"Lets hope he wakes up soon, until then, we will have to wait…"

"Yes, but time is something Cynder doesn't have"

Zach head footsteps fade away into the distance. Everything was coming to him as if it was through a fog. Slowly, Zach came out of his dreamlike state into full consciousness. He cracked one eye open to take in his surroundings. He was in a cage, again… typical, but he was alone in the room, and he wasn't underground. A window on the wall behind him cast rays of sunlight through the bars on his cage, casting them on his face. Zach groaned and sat himself upright, getting his head out of the sun. Other than the cage he was in, the room was otherwise completely empty. He seemed to be somewhere in the temple, but if he was at the temple, why was he in a cage?

His memory was still fuzzy on just how he had gotten here. He could remember his first trek to the temple, going after Cynder, and getting trapped in the caves… but everything else was a blur.

Well there was that dream… but was it a dream, if it wasn't. Zach cradled his head as a bolt of pain shot through his skull, flooding his mind with memories that flashed in rapid succession. The apes, his mission, going after Spyro, and what he did to Cynder…

Cynder!

He had to get out of here, maybe if he could get to her fast enough… but who knew how long it had been since he attacked her, and if she was even alive. But he would never forgive himself if he didn't try. Zach looked at the cage he was trapped in. It was solid granite, with no hinges, joints or seams and was about five feet by five feet in area. How was he going to get out of this? Zach took a closer look at the individual bars. They were spaced together, maybe five or six inches apart, and each had a diameter of about an inch. Zach scraped at one with a talon. The bar scratched and flaked off. That was odd, it seemed more fragile than it should. Zach pulled his hand back and struck at the bar with his enclosed fist. A loud crack resounded through the room as Zach's enclosed fist struck the bar. The granite bar cracked and splintered around the point of impact, but didn't cut clean through. Zach puled back his hand and examined it, his knuckled were bloodied and cut open, but he had been lucky and hadn't broken any of his fingers. Zach looked at the bar again, if he could get a few more hits on it, he may be able to break through it. But the sound caused by him hitting the bar might notify the guardians of his actions, and he didn't think his hand could take any more. Maybe he should call the guardians back, he could explain what happened and he could go help Cynder. But there was no way they were going to believe him; he would have to do this quietly.

But breaking through granite bars was not a quiet procedure. Zach tried pushing on, scratching, and chipping away at the bar he had splintered, but it still wouldn't come apart. He needed something big and heavy to impact the bar and he could probably break through. Zach looked around the confines of his cell but found nothing he could use. If only he had enough energy to use his powers, he could get out of this cell easily, but he didn't have time to deal with what ifs, the guardians would be back at any moment.

He needed something big and heavy… but what could he use? The only thing in the cell was him…

Well there was always that. As much as he didn't want to, that was probably his best bet of getting out of this mess. Zach backed himself up to the bars of the cage on the opposite side of the weakened bar. If he wasn't in this mess right now, he never would have though of doing anything like this. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and boy was he desperate.

Zach tucked his head and ran full force at the bars opposite him. Just before he reached the bars, he jumped into the air, curling himself into a ball before ramming into the weakened bars as well as two others. The impact jarred Zach teeth and disoriented him as he slammed shoulder first into the bars. Zach momentum seemed to be instantly stopped when he hit the bars, but they eventually crumbles, leaving Zach to hurtle through onto the floor on the outside of the cage.

Zach shook himself out of his daze and looked back at the cage behind him. He had broken through the weakened bar as well as the two surrounding them, leaving a three foot hole in the cage about three feet off the ground. The bars were left jagged and sharp and Zach saw the tips of them covered in red. Zach confirmed his thoughts when he looked himself over and found his arms and back covered in small scratches and gashes, but nothing was serious. Zach started to get to his feet, but fell back to the ground when his right forearm gave out under the weight of his body. Zach ground his teeth together as pain rippled though his arm and shoulder blade and he was forced to lie on the ground until the debilitating pain died down. Once Zach cleared his watery eyes, he examined his arm.

Zach cursed as he realized the extent of the damage. When he hit one of the more solid bars with his shoulder, he must have dislocated it. His shoulder now sat out of his socket, and any attempt to move it either resulted in nothing or a debilitating pain. Zach struggled to his feet, using his three good legs as support, careful not to jolt his damaged arm, as if walking on four legs wasn't hard enough. Zach took a few shaky steps on three feet, having to hop with his front foot to keep his arm from brushing against the ground, but after walking no more than five feet towards the door he lost his balance. Zach fell on his left side to keep from landing on his injured arm and sighed in despair. There was no way he could get anywhere like this, he would have to pop his joint back into place. Zach cringed at the thought, he hadn't ever done it before, but new it was going to be painful. He barely even knew how to do it, all the knowledge he had came from what he had seen and the slight medical knowledge that he got from his medical powers, but it had to be done.

Zach stood on his feet again and took a deep breath as he looked from his shoulder to the floor.

"Well here goes nothing." Zach used his three good legs to spring himself up into the air and turn on to his back. Zach landed on his right shoulder, using the weight of his body to force his shoulder back up and over his shoulder socket. He had to clench his teeth to keep from crying out in pain as a new ripple of pain shot though his body, making his vision flicker and threatening to knock him unconscious. Zach panted on his side as he began to taste blood in his mouth. It felt like he had knocked it back into place.

Zach stood on his feet being careful not to put his full weight on his right arm. He eventually became brave enough to test his weight on his arm, and when he was satisfied that it would hold, took a few steps around the room. There was some lingering pain, but it otherwise seemed intact.

Zach turned to leave the room, but cried out in pain and fell to the floor again as his shoulder slipped back out of place. It turned out that he had not pushed it all the way back into place, but that it was only sitting on the lip of the socket and had not fully settled back in place. Turning his body had rocked it in the wring direction and had popped it back out of place again. Zach lay on the ground, his body heaving and sweating as the tears streamed down his face. He wanted the pain to stop, but he didn't have the time to wait around for something else to happen. Zach struggled to his feet yet again as the tears continued to coarse down his face. He needed to do this right this time. Zach jumped into the air again, trying to get as much height into the jump so there would be as much force as possible acting on his arm. Zach hit the ground hard and was rewarded with a sickening snap as his shoulder popped all the way back into his socket. Zach let out a fresh bust of tears, this time more from relief than pain. Sure his arm still hurt, but he knew for sure that his arm was fully in its socket again.

Zach stood to his feet again, this time using all four of his legs, his right arm felt like it had been asleep, but was otherwise functional. He needed to get moving. The guardians were sure to have heard that last display. It was a miracle in itself that they were not already breathing down his neck. Zach walked into the hallway and turned down a corridor. The temple was so big, it would be a wonder if he could find Cynder without getting caught, but he was still going to try. Zach turned the corner, only to see the group of guardians turn into the same hallway from the opposite direction. Luckily they were talking to each other so they didn't see Zach duck into the first room he could get to.

Zach found himself in a room with the various energy crystals he could use to gain elemental energy, this was perfect. Zach move over to one of the crystals out of sight of the hallway and placed his hand on the crystal. Zach felt the energy flow through him as the guardians neared his doorway. As the passed the door of the room Zach was in, he backed way from the crystal into the shadows along the wall, but accidentally bumped into a group of pots. What was a group of pots doing in this room anyway.

Zach's heat stopped with the guardians' movements as the stopped out side the door.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That noise. It sounded like there was something moving in this room here."

"You're hearing things Cyril."

"I am not, give me a minute to check."

"Well hurry up, we need to go keep an eye on Zach."

Ill only be a minute. Zach held his breath as he saw the outline of Cyril enter the room. The ice guardian looked about the room looking for anything that was out of place. His eyes seemed to stop on Zach and there was a tense moment where Zach wasn't sure if he should spring from his hiding place or try and hold out. Finally, Cyril seemed content that nothing was amiss and left the room to join his fellow guardians.

Zach made sure he was full on energy and followed Cyril out into the hallway to see the guardians disappear around the corner towards his cell. So much for going around unnoticed, they would know he was gone in about ten seconds.

Zach sprinted down the hallway, glancing into each room as he passed for any trace of Cynder. Most of the rooms held only different barrels and boxes, one was a room full of scrolls, and another was a small garden filled with flowers, none of which contained what he was looking for.

When Zach reached the end of the hallway, an angry roar filled the hallway and shook the floor. They had found that he was missing. Great.

Zach turned the corned down the only other passage he could take, but this hallway had no rooms in it, he would have to try a different hallway. Zach ran to the end of the passage, looking over his shoulder the whole time waiting for the guardians to catch up to him. When their voices seemed to be coming around the corner. Zach plastered himself against the wall and cloaked himself just as Volteer and Cyril sped around the corner.

"Cyril you see if he headed through the library, ill check and make sure Cynder's ok, Terador's going to cut off the outside platform."

As they sped past, neither of the elder dragons saw the small white dragon huddled against the wall listening to their conversation.

This was perfect, now all Zach needed to do was follow Volteer. Zach turned the corned again and sprinted after the yellow guardian in front of him. after winding through at least six different passages, they came to the reflecting pool in the center of the temple. Zach thought to himself about how huge the temple was, there would be now way he could have found Cynder if he had looked by himself. Well he hadn't found Cynder yet. He still needed to follow Volteer all the way to her room.

Zach followed Volteer down two more passages before the yellow dragon finally turned into a room off the main passage. Zach waited outside as Volteer swept the room, making sure Zach wasn't hiding in any corners or under anything. Little did he know that the dragon he was looking for was hiding in plain sight just outside. Now Zach just had to wait for Volteer to leave, then he could get to Cynder. Finally, Volteer seemed satisfied that no one was in the room and headed for the door. Zach stepped out of the way as the large guardian exited the room.

But as Volteer exited the room, Cyril turned down the hallway, catching Zach between him and Volteer. As they talked, the two guardians walked closer together, Zach trapped in the middle.

"Did you find him?"

"No. He wasn't in Cynder's room; so you didn't find him either?"

"No. We should go help Terador; we may have to search for him outside the temple again."

There was now mere feet between Zach and both of the guardians, there was no way he was getting out of this without being noticed, one of them would have to rip over him. He needed to lead them away from Cynder's room and come back for her later. Now that he knew where she was, he thought he could find her again. An idea formed in Zach mind as he weighed his options. What was it about today that made him come up with ideas that were completely insane? Oh well, he didn't see much else he could do.

Zach run under Cyril's legs, uncloaking himself and reaching out and slashing as Cyril's legs with his talons at the same time. Cyril howled in pain as Zach ran off on the path he had followed Volteer on.

"Hey wait!"

"Get back here!"

Zach ignored their desperate shouts as he careened back towards the reflecting pool room. As he was running he turned his head just in time to see Volteer unleash a bolt of lighting. Zach ducked and flattened his wings to the ground as the bolt streaked over his head. That was close. Zach ran down the next hallway, once he was at the end, he would be in the reflecting pool room and could hopefully find his way out from there.

Zach yelped as Cyril coated the ground with a sheet of ice, almost freezing Zach's feet to the ground in the process. Zach simply dug his talons into the ice for traction and continued through to the reflecting pool room.

Once he broke free of the corridor, Zach glanced around the room to see try and orient himself with which hallway would take him outside. It didn't take much thought once Zach saw Terador appear in one of the doorways, a look of concern on his face. Zach took off for the passage Terador was in, catching the guardian by surprise. Zach took advantage of this and rolled under the guardian's legs just as a giant snowball from Cyril came flying through, smacking Terador in the face and knocking him to the ground.

Zach ran down the hall until he came to the outside platform, where he immediately took off into the air, cloaking himself as he took off. for this to work he needed the guardians to take the bait.

Zach watched in satisfaction as Cyril then Volteer appeared on the balcony, spread their wings, then took off into the distance. Volteer soon followed them, still wiping snow from his face.

Satisfied that they were gone, Zach started to trace his way back through the temple from the air, using the large dome in the center as a reference for the reflecting pool room. Zach turned off in the direction that he though Cynder's room was in and soon cam to the outer wall of the temple. There were a few windows along the outside wall, so Zach choose the one he though was most likely the one to Cynder's room, and if he was wrong, he would only be a few doors down. Zach flew up to the window, using his talons to dig into the small windowsill and keep his balance. As Zach clambered through the window and dropped to the floor below, his eyes started to adjust to the darkness.

Lying on a bed of cushions in the Center of the room was Cynder. He needed to stop meeting her like this. Zach took a few tentative steps towards her. Was she even still alive? As he got close Zach could start to make out more details of Cynder's condition. Ever so slightly, Zach could see her chest rise up and down with each labored breath. Good she was still alive. But the thing that worried Zach the most was the bandage around her neck. Zach reached out and undid the bandages, pulling them away to reveal Cynder's wound.

Zach gasped in shock, the wounds were deep and jagged, much deeper than he expected and they were beginning to get badly infected. But more shocking than the severity of the wound was the fact that he had been the one who had done this to her. Zach let a tear fall as he thought about what he had done. Could he have stopped it? But it didn't matter now, he may still be able to save her, she was still alive, but the only thing he was unsure of was how much his powers could fix.

Zach tapped into his energy reserves as he reached out a hand to place on Cynder's neck. He could still fix this.

But before he could even bring his hand close to Cynder, a wall of rock shot up in front of him, cutting him off from Cynder and scraping the edges of his talons. Zach snapped his head around to see Terador standing in the doorway in a fighting stance.

"Come to finish the job have you Zach, well I won't let you."

Zach shook his head in disbelief, he had been so close. Now what was he supposed to do? He couldn't just heal Cynder, he couldn't fight Terador, and there was a fat chance of him being able to talk himself out of this one. Things were not looking good for him.

"Aww Crap!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Wait… where's Spyro?

"You have caused these young dragons enough pain. I won't let you hurt them any more."

Wait. Did he just say these dragons? Zach looked around the room, he had completely forgotten about Spyro. But the purple dragon was nowhere in the room, but Zach didn't have the time to worry about it. Hopefully he was asleep or somewhere where he couldn't cause Zach any more problems, Terador was a big enough one to deal with, literally.

"Would you listen to me if I tried to explain myself."

"And what would you have to say for yourself? There is no excuse for what you did." Terador slammed his foot on the ground creating a pillar of earth underneath Zach, sending him careening towards the ceiling. Zach rolled off of the pillar just before it impacted the ceiling, cracking the stone and showing Zach with dust and pebbles.

This dragon was serious, that could have easily killed him. "You wouldn't listen to what I had to say, even If it meant I could save Cynder?" Zach gestured over towards her body with one of his wings.

"So you could lie to us again and turn on me, don't think I'll fall for that Zach." Terador launched a blast of earth from his mouth, sending a boulder towards Zach. Zach rolled out of the way again, he couldn't attack Terador, and the guardian didn't trust him already. But he had to get through to him now; Cynder didn't have the time.

Terador was about to launch another blast at Zach when he stopped in his tracks. Zach noticed and looked to see why Terador had stopped. It ended up that when Zach had rolled out of the way of the last blast, he had ended up with Cynder between him and Terador. The guardian was not going to risk hitting Cynder in the crossfire, so he should be safe for the moment.

"Terador listen to me! I know you don't have any reason to trust me anymore, but I need you to listen to me." Zach wondered if that sounded as stupid as he thought it did.

"You're right Zach, I don't have any reason to trust you anymore." Terador slammed his fist into the ground again. Sending up a pillar of rock from the ground right in front of Zach.

Zach didn't have time to react and the stone pillar connected squarely with his jaw, sending him flying across the room. Zach rolled to a stop on the other side of the room, siting up to spit the blood out of his mouth.

Terador wasted no time, immediately sending another bast of earth energy at Zach. Zach had no time to recover and was hit again, the tremendous force of the impact breaking one of his ribs and forcing all the air out of his lungs.

Zach felt the energy he had stored in his body start to flow towards his injuries, but Zach stopped the flow before it could be used up. He needed all the energy he could get if he was going to save Cynder, he could heal himself later. Zach stood on his feet again, wincing at the pain in his side. "Please Terador, I know I don't deserve your trust, but do this for Cynder."

"Why would you care about Cynder? You were the one who put her in this condition in the first place."

"You think I don't know that? But unlike you, I'm trying to do something about it." Zach immediately regretted saying the last part. Terador flung himself across the room at Zach, pinning him halfway up the wall with one massive claw, Zach could see the anger flashing in his eyes.

"You think that I haven't tried everything in my power to save her? She helped save our world, the least I can do is try everything to save her, and don't you dare tell me otherwise." Terador pushed Zach harder against the wall. Zach simply hung there, his wings pinned against his back and his arms and legs dangling helplessly in the air. Terador stared Zach in the face as he continued to hold the young dragon against the wall. "I would give my life to save this dragon, even after all that she had done. And even if I cared about the past, I would do it for Spyro."

Zach wheezed through his half crushed lungs. " Then why won't you give me that chance?"

"Because we gave you a chance once, and this is the situation we ended up with."

"If you knew even half of the reasons why I did those things."

"Well then start explaining Zach, because the second that Cynder dies, you go with her." Terador glared into Zach's eyes. Zach knew he was serious.

Zach shook his head. "I can't tell you Terador, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me Zach, you've got nothing else to lose."

Zach wracked his brain, trying to come up with a reasonable answer to why he had done those things, but everything for the past few days was a blur of emotions, memories, and impulses. "I can't even explain it to myself, I only remember bits and pieces, and none of them seem to fit together." That wasn't exactly the answer he wanted

"Then I guess you're out of luck Zach."

Zach stared Terador in the face. "Tell me this Terador. Could you ever look Spyro in the face again if you knew that there had been the slightest chance of saving Cynder, but you denied her the chance?" As if to emphasize his point, Cynder started coughing hard again, catching Terador's attention.

Zach brought him back with another question. "So, Terador, will you trust me? For this one thing, will you forget what I have done and let me help her, or will you continue to restrain me and watch her die? I don't care what you think about me, but let me do this."

Terador stared long and hard into Zach's eyes, searching them for any sign of falsity. He couldn't trust this dragon, not after what he had done, but what choice did he have. Zach was Cynder's only chance. Terador though it through for another long moment, what would Ignitus have done? He always seemed to have the right answers. Wouldn't he have given Zach a second chance like they had given Cynder? Maybe he couldn't see the whole picture.

And Zach was right, he would never be able to talk to Spyro again if he didn't try everything possible to save Cynder, even if it meant he would have to trust Zach. Tearador removed his paw and Zach dropped to the floor, gasping for breath.

"I take it that means you'll let me help then?

Terador shot back at Zach, "Make it quick! And if you hurt her any more, you won't have time to blink before I end you."

Terador followed Zach every move as he picked himself off the ground and walked over to Cynder. Zach was covered with numerous cuts and bruises. His body wanted to use his energy to heal himself, but Zach held back the flow of energy. He would need everything he had to save Cynder.

Zach looked down at Cynder's wound, how had he done such a horrible thing? Zach stomach churned at the thought. But he could fix it, he thought…

Zach reached out and placed his hand on Cynder's wound. Cynder jerked in response and Terador tensed up again, ready to take Zach on. Zach just ignored him and continued. As soon as Zach hand had come in contact with Cynder's wound he felt the energy start to drain from his body and flow into Cynder. Slowly, the infection seemed to dissolve away from the edges of her wounds, but the wounds themselves remained open; they would take a lot more to heal. Zach opened his maw and breathed slowly onto the area directly under his paw. The blue green energy slowly seeped into the damage tissue on Cynder's neck. The inflamed tissue started to bleed again as Zach broke apart the scabs that slowed the bleeding. He needed to break apart the scabs before he could essentially 'stitch' the wound back together, but the blood was now seeping down through her damaged throat into her lungs; he needed to do this quickly. Zach watched with nervous anticipation as the tissue slowly started forming together into scar tissue.

As Zach continued to heal Cynder, he felt his energy drop quickly. The stream of energy flowing into Cynder started to shrink and sputter, Zach was running on the last bits of his energy. But Cynder wasn't completely healed yet, and he needed to do this in one go or it may cause more problems than it fixed.

Zach willed himself to go on, pushing energy into his attempt at healing Cynder that he didn't have.

Much to Zach's surprise, he somehow came up with enough energy to seal over the lacerations on Cynder's neck. The wounds had sealed into gnarly looking scar tissue, but he could fix that later. He needed the energy for different things, Cynder still had massive amounts of blood in her lungs; it was a miracle that she wasn't dead.

Zach rolled Cynder onto her stomach and placed his hand on her back over her lungs. Terador continued to watch Zach closely, fidgeting when Zach placed his hand on Cynder's back. Zach poured the last of his energy into forcing the blood out of Cynder's lungs. Slowly, a stream of blood started to trickle out of Cynder's mouth. This immediately alarmed Terador who raced over and towered over Zach. Zach felt his energy waning again and forced the last of it into Cynder.

"What did you do to her?"

Zach collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. He had healed her as much as he could, but he wasn't sure if it was enough. If he hadn't forced enough of the blood out of Cynder's lungs, it would all be for nothing. As Zach lay on the ground, he felt his heart sputter and catch. Zach clutched at his chest as pain rippled through his body, darkness flickering at the edges of his vision, but it quickly subsided. Zach just lay on the ground panting. What was that, if he didn't know better he would say that he just had a heart attack.

"Zach! What did you do?"

Zach guessed what Terador was worried about and muttered a reply. "Relax, the blood coming out of her mouth was building up in her lungs, it needed to come out. She isn't injured in any way."

Terador continued glare at Zach, but as if to confirm Zach's statement, Cynder started coughing heavily, blood spattering across the ground in front of her. After a full minute of hacking up blood, Cynder finally quieted down into a raspy breathing.

Terador stood attentively over Cynder's body. She was still breathing, but he couldn't tell if Zach had done anything to help her. As Terador looked over her, he saw her eyelids flutter before cracking open to let Cynder peer around the room.

"Cynder!"

Cynder slowly raised her head to look at Terador

"Terador, is that you?"

"Cynder you're alright, thank the ancestors!" Terador scooped Cynder up into a tight embrace before setting her gently on her feet. Cynder wobbled before catching her balance.

"Be careful with her Terador, she still might have some injures I missed."

Cynder turned her head towards Zach who was lying on the ground behind her. "Zach? What are you doing here?"

"You mean you don't remember?" This could be bad, once she remembered what he had done….

Terador broke in for Zach, a small amount of disbelief and suspicion still evident in his voice. "He just healed you after you acquired some… injuries…"

Cynder continued to look at Zach. "Injuries? I don't remember much, what do you mean injuries?"

Terador and Zach remained quiet, neither of them able or willing to answer her question.

Slowly a look of recognition and horror crossed Cynder's face as she took a step back from Zach.

Zach turned his head away from her in shame. " I guess I deserve that."

"I don't understand… why?"

"Join the club Cynder, I don't exactly understand why either." Zach voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he immediately felt bad for snapping back at Cynder like that. It wasn't her fault, and she had been through too much for him to be hard on her.

Cynder didn't seem to accept the answer, but didn't question Zach any more. She stood in silence for a moment before looking around the room. "Where's Spyro? What happened to him?" Eventually Cynder swiveled back to look at Zach.

Zach raised his hands from where he was on the ground. "Hey don't look at me, I didn't do it."

Cynder turned to Terador, who looked just as confused as everyone else. "Where's Spyro?"

Terador looked at the ground. "I… I don't know."

"How do you not know where he went?" Cynder was starting to get anxious, getting up into Terador's face. Zach shrank back towards the wall, if Cynder got angry with them, bad things would happen, and he would probably be the target of her anger.

"He probably went after Zach again, but since Zach is here, who knows where Spyro went."

"But how could you just let him disappear like that? You know he will push himself too far if he is set on something."

"I know Cynder. But I don't understand how he slipped by me."

"He probably got out the same way I got in."

"What was that Zach?" Terador and Cynder both turned their attention to Zach who was still lying on the ground.

Zach motioned with one of his wings. "That window over there. I came I though it, so I don't see any reason why Spyro couldn't have gotten out."

Cynder spoke again, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes. "But where would he have gone? Why would he just leave the temple?"

Zach piped in from across the room. " I think I may know where he went, but you won't like my answer."

Spyro flew through the air, his damaged wings screaming at him in pain, but he continued on anyway. Spyro looked around at his surroundings. He was flying over relatively familiar terrain, the forest below him looked like the one surrounding the Valley of Avalar, and the mountains he looming up in front him should be the backs to the city of Warfang. He was headed in the right direction. From Warfang he would have to continue on his current path… and he would eventually would make it to the mountain of Malefore.

Spyro beat his wings to gain altitude, pain shooting though his body as his wings pushed against the air. There was no way he could keep doing this for much longer. His whole flight had been like this, flying as high as his wings would take him before gliding as far as he could. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to go after Zach again… he was barely strong enough to fly, much less fight, and he was probably walking right into a trap. But it didn't matter anymore… nothing mattered.

Spyro glided as far as he could before beating his wings again to keep from crashing into the trees below. Each time he beat his wins he could feel the loose scabs on his torn wing membranes tear and pull apart. Spyro groaned as he looked back at his wings. Blood started to pool on the tips of his wings and fall to the ground below. There was no way he could keep doing this for much longer, his wings were falling apart before his eyes.

Spyro beat his wings another time, rising high above the treetops again, but not as high as he would have hoped. Spyro passed over the edge of the forest and into the mountain range. A thick fog surrounded the mountains around their peaks, forcing him to fly lower to the ground and flapping his wings more often. Thankfully he had hit a pass in one of the thinner parts of the range.

Spyro banked to the left to fly around one of the mountains in front of him. If he remembered correctly, he would come out of the mountains about a mile from the city near its main gate. Noticing he was almost on the ground again. Spyro pumped his wings again, but cried out in pain as he felt his wing membranes tear apart.

Spyro fell from the sky, flailing his damaged wings as hard as he could to slow his decent. Spyro hit the ground hard, bouncing a few times before rolling to a stop on the hard ground. "Ugh... I've got to stop landing like this…"

Spyro picked himself off the ground and glanced back at his wings. He had completely dissolved any sort of scab or new tissue that had been connecting them together. They were torn to shreds again; there was no way he was flying out of the mountains anymore. Spyro spoke into the empty mountain air. "I guess I'm walking then."

A bolt of darkness streaked over Zach's head and crashed into the wall behind him. "What do you mean he went to the Mountain of Malefore!"

Zach was impressed, he didn't think Cynder would be able to mount such an attack after the state she was in. But his amazement only added to the fear of Cynder's raw power. "Hey, don't kill me over this, I just told you where he probably went."

"But why would he go there? That is the last place Spyro would ever go!"

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "He went there, because he was baited there."

Cynder turned and marched over to Zach. "And what would bait him there, he has no reason to ever go back!"

"You."

"What?" Cynder gave Zach a quizzical look, what kind of an answer was that?

"You. You are the reason that Spyro is headed to the mountain."

"So this is my fault now?" Cynder was back to glaring at Zach. Zach was forced to turn away from her strong gaze, he still couldn't meet her eye to eye.

"No, I didn't say it was your fault. But Spyro was baited there when you were in trouble. He was told if he did something there, that I would save you from your injuries."

"Who would bait him, and why?"

Zach curled himself into a smaller ball. Every question that Cynder asked scraped against his conscience reminding him of what he had done and scraping against the raw wounds on his heart. As much as he didn't want to, he felt obligated to answers her questions.

"I don't know why… but I was the one who baited him."

"What! How could you!" Cynder was yelling in his face now. Zach continued to stare at the ground, he could understand her anger, if he were in her position he would have hit someone by now. Zach watched out of the corner of his eye as Cynder turned form him and stormed across the room, ending up facing the far wall. "And how can you not know why you did it? You don't just do those kind of things without a reason"

Zach just tried to remain calm, getting mad wouldn't help the situation any. Zach looked over at Terador who just shrugged; he was helping things so much right now, but its not like he could blame Terador. Terador and Cynder had no clue as to the scope of what was going on, and he still only remembered bits and pieces

Terador finally broke into the conversation, speaking to Cynder in a soft tone. "Cynder, do you remember why you did the things you did as Malefore's servant?"

Cynder immediately hung her head in shame, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes.

"Cynder, don't think I find joy in bringing up there memories, they're painful for all of us. But sometimes you need to see things in a different light." Terador walked over to Cynder and pulled her into an embrace with his wing. Zach could her crying from across the room.

Zach shifted into a more comfortable position on the ground. He didn't get these people. One second Cynder is almost to the point of tearing him to shreds and Teardor was siting around doing nothing, the next, Terador comes in with some sage advice and Cynder is reduced to tears.

But some things did make sense, Cynder had been through more than Zach thought humanly possible, and Terador was supposed to be a guardian, a protector, someone who always had the right answers. This world wasn't so different after all.

Zach head Cynder's crying slowly diminished, but turned into a fit of coughing as she tired to catch her breath. The coughing couldn't be good for her after her lungs had been so beaten up. Zach looked around the room and spotted two buckets of water over in one corner of the room. Pushing himself to his feet, Zach stretched as he felt the bones in his spine snap back into place. For whatever reason he had almost passed out earlier, he seemed to be ok now. He strode over to the buckets against the wall, but stopped standing over them. How was he supposed to pick them up? He couldn't walk and hold it in one hand at the same time, he wasn't that coordinated yet. "Guess I'll have to use my mouth." Zach craned his neck over and took the wooden handle of the bucket between his teeth, leaving a woody taste in his mouth. He then walked carefully over to where Terador was still standing with Cynder, placing the bucket at Cynder's feet. "You should drink Cynder, you need to get some fluids into you after what you went through, and the water should help with your cough."

Cynder turned her head from where it was buried in the crook of Terador's arm. Tears still ran down her face and her eyes were red and puffy, but she seemed to have stopped crying for the moment. She looked at Zach for a moment, not sure of what to make of him. After all that she had done, shouldn't she be the one trying to defend him. Spyro and the guardians had given her a second chance, they had believed in her when she didn't believe in herself. She knew what it was like to have done something like what Zach had done, and she regretted it every day of her life. Looking at the dragon before her she could see the remorse in his eyes, the look of unshakable pain that would live with him for the rest of his life, he was sincere in his actions. Why shouldn't she give him the chance that she longed for herself?

Cynder bent down and took a long draw from the bucked below her, the cool water running down her throat and soothing her parched throat. Cynder took another draught, but started coughing on the water.

"Not too fast there Cynder, you need to take it slow." Cynder looked at Zach out of the corner of her eyes, he reminded her of Spyro in how he was looking out for her… Oh, Spyro…

Zach broke the silence. "It doesn't make sense to me though, after our last battle, I remember telling him that there was no way I was ever going to save Cynder, so he should have known that going to the mountain would be useless."

"But that doesn't make any sense, why would he do that, if he though that I wasn't going to make it… why would he go anyway?" Cynder shook her head And A shiver ran down her spine, she was still a little spooked by all that had happened.

Tearador spoke again from the corner of the room. "I don't know, it doesn't seem like Spyro to do a thing like this."

"What about revenge?"

"What?" Cynder's head snapped around to stare at Zach again.

"Revenge, on me for what I did, that might be why he went."

Cynder stomped her foot on the ground. "No I heard you the first time, but that's not Spyro, he would never seek revenge."

Teardor strode to thew center of the room between the two dragons, "I don't know Cynder, when you were injured, Spyro wasn't acting like himself.

"Yeah Cynder, I don't think you have any idea what kind of an affect you have on Spyro."

"What do you mean" Cynder's question was half-serious. Part of her had no clue what Zach was talking about, the other had a hope that maybe… maybe Spyro had feelings for her.

Zach just laughed, "if you can't see it, then you're a little more oblivious than I though, but I'll let you figure that one out by yourself."

"Hey, come on, tell me."

"Not a chance, I am NOT going to be the one to say something that isn't true about you two and get in trouble for it."

"Humph!" Cynder just glared at Zach, what was that dragon implying?

Chara flew through the cool morning air just outside the Dragon City of Warfang. Finally she could get away from her studies and tests and have some time to herself. Chara angled her wings and banked straight up into the air, letting her momentum throw her high into the sky. Spinning up into the air, she collapsed her wings streamlining her body. At the apex of her flight, Chara turned herself over exposing her soft stomach scales to the sun, warming her scales as she started to free fall back towards the earth. Chara relishing in the simple feeling of freedom.

Chara continued her flip, rolling all the way over and pointing her nose straight towards the ground. If there was one thing that always clamed her down, it was flying. Chara picked up speed as she plummeted towards the ground below. Off in the corner of her vision she could see a dragon winging his way out to meet her. Chara rolled her eyes and flared out her wings slowing herself down, even from here she could already tell who it was.

Chara spiraled her way towards the ground, pumping her wings a few times and gently setting her feet on the ground. She had landed near the edge of the forest surrounding the mountains, shading herself from the sun. Looking back towards the city, she could see the other young dragon leisurely flying out towards her. Chara let out a heavy sigh, why couldn't people leave her alone? This was some of the only time she had to herself out of that crowded city.

Eventually the other dragon reached where Chara was standing alongside the edge of the forest. Chara watched him as he landed a few feet in front of her. Deep blue scales covered most of his body while his chest and stomach scales had more of a milky blue hue, streaks of a mix between the two color coursed across his chest and down his back and sides making him appear long and slender, though he was muscular even for a male dragon. His facial features were nothing special, he had a strong facial build with pronounced cheekbones and jaw. Three ivory shaded horns protruded out of the top of his head in a triangular fashion, the lead horn just above his forehead. These horns sweeped back across his head splaying out from each other at shallow angles. Two other smaller horns jutted out from the back of his jaw, swinging up towards the top of his head. Long ridged fins ran down the length of his back and tail ending in a barbed tail made from three spikes angling away from his body in a conical shape. Large wings folded up behind the dragon. Pressed against his body, Chara could only the dark blue spines and membranes, but she knew that when they were in flight they had streaks of milky white color running through them. Overall he was larger and taller than Chara his head resting almost a half foot above hers, but that was expected seeing as he was older and a male.

"What do you want?" The irritation was clearly evident in Chara's voice.

"Oh, come on, you mean your not glad to see me sis?" Chara's brother walked over and prodded her in the side with the barb of his wing.

"No, I'm not, now leave me alone Makias." Chara snapped back, swinging at his paw and raking her talons along his arm. She really didn't want to deal with anyone right now, especially not Makias

Makias cocked an eyebrow at his sister. "What's eating you? He had expected Chara to react to his prodding, but she never would get violent. Makias looked down at his arm, she hadn't broke the scales, but the fact that she had stuck out bothered him the most, something was seriously bothering her.

Chara turned her head away, "its nothing, I just need to be alone for a while."

"Oh no you don't. I've lived with you for too long to not know when something's bothering you. Now spill it."

Chara turned back to her brother who just looked at her, concern written over his face. He always had been able to see right through to her emotions. She was not going to get out of this one. Chara let out a heavy sigh as she lay down on the ground. "You may want to sit down for this one, it may take a while."

Makias lay down a few feet away from Chara making himself comfortable.

Chara took a deep before rolling over onto her back and speaking up into the trees above. "It's just so much to handle, with training and the trials coming up, and being younger than everyone else doesn't help, not to mention that I'm the only girl there…" Chara stopped when she hear her brother laughing across from her. "What, that not funny!"

"Sure it is… Chara you worry too much, just relax. We all know you're more than capable of passing, you just need to not worry so much, just relax and you will do fine."

"That's what I was trying to do, but you had to come and screw things up." Chara waited a moment, expecting Makias to respond. When he didn't, Chara turned expecting some kind of response, but Makias was on his feet, staring intently into the forest behind her. "What…"

"Shhh…." Makias took a few steps towards the woods, placing himself between the forest and Chara.

"Makias what's?"

"Chara, get up… Now!" The tone of Makias' voice prompted Chara to respond without question.

"Makias, what's wring?"

Makias responded without ever tuning his attention from the woods. "There's something in the woods." This was big news. Even after the great cataclysm had rocked the planet, small bands of grublins and apes still marauded around the city

"How can you tell?" Chara swung herself around to stand beside and slightly behind Makias, settling herself into a defensive battle stance. If whatever came out of the woods was expecting an easy target, they were in for a surprise.

"Be quiet and listen…" the two dragons stood on the edge of the clearing as quiet and as still as possible. Chara strained her ears trying to pick out the subtle sounds that her brother had picked up. While she couldn't hear anything, she knew to trust her older brother, and not to question him. It was better to be safe then sorry when your life was on the line.

But what came out of the woods was far from what they were expecting. Makias' mouth hung open and a gasp escaped from Chara's mouth. A dragon had appeared out of the forest, his wings torn apart and his body badly bloodied and scared. His head almost dragged along the ground as he appeared to be walking in a daze

"Dear Ancestors!" Chara ran over to the battered and limping dragon that appeared out of the forest. supporting him on one side. "Are you ok?"

Makias moved over and supported the dragon on the other side, shooting Chara a quick look as he did so. The dragon hardly noticed as Chara and Makias moved up beside him. He just continued walking towards Warfang off in the distance.

Chara turned to her brother looking overtop of the beaten dragon. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know." Makias moved from where he was alongside of the dragon, stepping in front of him preventing him from moving any further. " Hey, are you alright?" The dragon stopped and wearily lifted his head to make eye contact with Makias. The dragon was slightly older than Makias, which meant he only needed to lift his head a short ways to reach eye level. Makias was taken aback by the strong gaze of the dragon. There was so much pain in his eyes, pain and confusion. The dragon's eyes focused on Makias and he stared for a long moment before letting out a single word. "Cynder…"

The dragon then collapsed against Chara who staggered under his full weight. "Makias we have to do something." He voice was almost frantic as she let the dragon slide off her body gently down to the ground; her sides remained covered in blood.

"I know… Come on, well get him home, Mom should be able to do something with him." Makias walked around behind the dragon and placed himself overtop of him, grabbing him under the arms and preparing to fly him back to the city. Makias jumped when he hard Chara gasp again behind him, whipping his head around to see what was wrong. Chara stood next to him, her mouth hanging open as she stared at the new dragon. "What? What is it?" Makias thought that the dragon may have had more extensive injuries then he though, as if that was possible.

"Makias… that dragoon… he is purple!"

Makias tuned back around to look at the dragon and sure enough, under the blood that coated them, the dragon had deep violet scales. "Wow, what do you think he's doing out here?"

"I don't know…" Chara took a few quick glances around the forest and though the sky above. "Makias, what do you think he meant by 'Cynder'. You don't think that she's around here do you?" They had both hear stories about the terror of the skies and the last thing they wanted to do was meet her. Chara began to shake uncontrollably from shock and fear.

"I don't know. That might explain the state he's in, but I don't want to stick around to find out." Makias scanned the sky looking for any other disturbances. "Come on, let's get him out of here."

Volteer walked into the room. "Terador look out its Zach!"

Zach ducked out of the way as lighting bolt flew over his head and exploded against the wall. "HEY! I didn't do anything this time!"

Terador stepped in front of Zach, shielding him from Volteer. "Relax Volteer, he isn't going to hurt anything."

"But Zach, Cynder… He did… She is…"

"Relax now Volteer, take a look around, Cynder's fine."

"What, where?" Volteer looked around and spotted Cynder lying over in the corner of the room, her head up and watching the events unfold. "Cynder you're alright!" Volteer raced over and picked Cynder up and wrapped his giant wings around her.

"Hey easy with her now!" Zach yelled from across the room behind Terador. "I don't want to go having to fix her injuries again"

Volteer set Cynder back on the ground, a huge smile plastered on his face. Cynder gave him a small smile back, the electric guardian was a bit eccentric. Volteer turned his attention over to Zach, the smile fading from his face to be replaced by a look of concern and confusion. "So does someone want to explain to me the reasoning behind this confusing predicament?"

Zach heard Cynder stifle her laughter from somewhere behind Volteer; Terador simply rolled his eyes. Zach was the one to speak up "err… can we wait for Cyril to show up? If you're here that means he can't be that far behind, and I would prefer not to have to repeat myself."

As if on cue, Cyril walked into the room "Zach!" Cyril immediacy opened his mouth and spewed a stream of ice across the ground, freezing Zach's feet to the floor as well as covering most of the room in a sheet of ice.

"Really? Again? Does everyone have to attack me when they see me?" Zach pulled at his feet, trying to break them free of the thin layer of ice holding them to the floor.

Cyril opened his mouth to attack again, but thankfully, Terador came to his rescue yet again. "Easy now Cyril, just relax, and we'll try to explain things."

Cyril and Volteer both walked to the center of the room and settled down into a comfortable position. Terador broke the sheet of ice holding Zach to the ground and nudged Zach into the center of the room, standing behind him once he had settled down. He may not completely trust Zach yet. But so far his story had made sense, and he didn't seem to be trying to do anything dangerous.

"So Zach, care to tell us what has happened and give us an explanation for what has happened?" Volteer's voice was biting and curious at the same time.

Zach took a deep breath. Explaining it the first time had been hard, now he had to do it again. The worst thing about it was that he was just as confused about his actions as the guardians were. Something had left a gap in his memory during the time that he had spent chasing after Spyro. He could only remember things on the fringes of that time. But what all could he tell them? There was still his biggest secret he was harboring from them. Should he tell them now or should he hold out a bit longer? Who knows how far they would be willing to go to trust him? No, now wasn't the time.

Zach looked around the room. Volteer and Cyril watched him patiently, waiting for an explanation, Terador stood behind him, a reassuring smile on his face edging him to go on, and Cynder lay over in the corner of the room sleeping. She had heard the story before and she needed her rest, no need to listen to it again.

"Well here goes nothing"

Chara and Makias flew over the wall of the city without so much as a second glance from the guards posted on the walls. Dragons flying over the walls were a common sight in recent days, and the mole guards really couldn't do anything to stop them. There were a few adult dragons stationed along the walls at random intervals to keep track of the younger dragons in the city and take care of any quarrels that might spring up. Thankfully, they had flown over an unguarded part of the wall. The dragon guards had a habit of stopping any young dragon that flew over the walls for any reason, and the fact that Makias was carrying someone else would have brought unwanted attention.

Besides, his mother was one of the best doctors in the city and taking him straight home meant that she could give him personal care in her home rather than in the extensive rooms of the clinic. Chara and Makias flew side by side over the city below them, passing over various markets and housing districts getting confused stares from any passerby that happened to look up at them.

"Makias" Chara was looking over at her brother with concern on her face. The dragon Makias was carrying continued to lose blood though various scrapes and cuts as well as his flayed wings.

"Don't worry, once we get him home, mom will be able to take care of him." Makias shot a reassuring smile back at his sister. She was covered in blood, although it wasn't her own, and her body shook from shock. The whole thing had spooked her. With this battered dragon appearing out of the woods and collapsing on her added to the mention of Cynder, a dragon they had feared since the day they were born, it was too much for her to handle. "Come on, we're almost home."

The pair of dragons banked their flight and angled towards a group of pavilions down on the ground, landing in front of one that was slightly larger then the rest. Makias set the dragon he was carrying gently on the ground before landing next to him.

"You go and tell mom we need her now, I'll get him into mom's workroom." Makias looked straight into his sister's eyes to make sure she understood. Chara stood in the doorway shaking slightly. "Hey look, everything is going to be alright, you're not hurt are you?" Makias raised an eyebrow; it was possible that she had been injured when the dragon practically fell on top of her.

Chara shook her head.

"Oh then, I need you to go get mom, ok?" Chara nodded slightly as she firmed her jaw and forced her limbs to still themselves before running off into the house. Chara moved though the house calling out for her mother as she searched through each of the rooms on the lower lever. After she was unable to find her mother on the lower levels, Chara ran to the steps and vaulted herself up, using her wings to propel herself up the stairs rather than running. Chara landed at the top of the stairs and dug her claws into the soft stone whipping herself around. "Mom!"

Chara's mother strolled out of her room at the other end of the hallway. Her face was buried in a medicinal text that she often read from. "What's the rush Chara, it sounds like…" the scroll fell from her mother's hand as she looked up and saw Chara covered in blood. "Dear ancestors Chara, what happened, are you ok?" Her mother was immediately hovering overtop of her, checking her over for injuries.

"Mom…." Char spoke up from under her mother's protective care, trying to bring attention to the dragon that Makias was moving downstairs.

"Are you ok, where is your brother, where is the bleeding coming from, did you clean the wound?" Chara's mother's medical training mixed with her instinct for the protection and care for her children.

"Mom!"

"Where's Makias, is he hurt, how did you make it back, where did this happen?" Her mother ran her hand down her side, feeling the bases of her wings and down her side, looking for and broken bones and other injuries.

"Mom! I'm fine."

"But you covered in blood, and…" Chara was held out at arms length and examined again by her mother.

"We found someone outside the city walls, he was beat up pretty bad so we brought him back here." Chara looked up at her mother as she started to pull away and head back downstairs. "He needs your help."

Chara's mother followed closely behind Chara as she moved back down the stairs and towards her mother's office and workroom. Still worried that her daughter was covered in blood, Chara's mother continued to look her over as she walked down the stairs.

As they walked into the room that served as her mother's office and office, Chara had to turn her head to avoid looking at the dragon that lay unconscious on the table. Chara's mother let out and audible gasp as she entered the room. "My word, what happened to him."

Makias threw a cloth into the sink that he had been using to wash off some of the dried blood from the dragon's scales. Both of the siblings had a small amount of training in their mother's art, but Makias was more prone to helping and had more experience in helping their mother. "He wandered out of the woods like this and collapsed, so we carried him back here." Makias grabbed another cloth from a rack on the side of the room and dunked it in a basin before gently washing away the blood and dirt from the dragon's wings.

"Do you know who he is?"

Char answered from over in the corner of the room. "No, he passed out before he could say anything…"

Makias shot Chara a look behind his mother's back, questioning why Chara hadn't mentioned the one word he had said. Chara simply shook her head. It was best not to worry their mother any more then they needed to.

Chara's mother moved overtop of the dragon laying on the table, looking at serious points of injury as Makias pointed them out. "Well, let me see what I can do."

Zach lay quietly in the room that the guardians had provided for him. It had been a long day and he needed his rest. But even in the safety of the temple, Zach was still restless. Spyro was out in the wilderness somewhere and it was partially his fault. That added to the fact that he had heard a bolt sliding across the door when the guardians left made things almost unbearable. Its not like he blamed them for being weary of him, but their lack of trust made him doubt himself even more.

What was he supposed to be dong here anyway. So far, all he had managed to do was almost get himself killed, throw everyone he met into turmoil, get captured by some dark unknown evil, and destroy some villages along the way. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep, but there was no way he could do that now. He had spent almost two weeks here… Two weeks who knew what his family and friends were thinking. Zach rolled over again on his collection of pillows. He had to find some way home; not only for himself but so he could stop screwing up everyone's lives. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about that right now. He needed his sleep anyway, it had been a long day.

Zach thought about eating some of the venison he had been provided with, but the thought sickened him. One of the guardians had simply given him a half of a dear, uncooked. Zach couldn't heat it up in any way, and he didn't think he could stomach any raw meat, so the food lay unmoved in the corner.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Zach head the bolt to his room slide and then click as the door cracked open. Much to his surprise, Cynder slipped into the room before quietly closing the door behind her.

"Cynder? What are you doing here?"

"Getting you. Now lets go."

"Wait. What? You aren't planing on going after Spyro are you? You shouldn't be moving around to much right now, least of all flying cross country." Zach picked himself off of his bedding and walked over to Cynder, placing himself between her and the door. He wasn't going to let her go and do something stupid. "You need to lay down and rest. And you probably shouldn't be in here either." The guardians wouldn't take to kindly to Cynder sneaking into his room for obvious reasons…

"What do you think Zach? I'm not going to let Spyro go do something he will regret, and the guardians will never catch up to him." Cynder stared at Zach with determination in her eyes. "Now lets go, Spyro already has a huge head start on us, we need to get going now if to have any hope of catching him."

"Wait. We? Us? Why do you want me to come along? Spyro won't be too happy to see me you know. And then there's the fact that I can barely fly, have almost no fighting skill to speak of, and no useful powers in a fight…. Do I need to go on? Besides, you are in no shape to be going anywhere. You need to stay here and rest. And what about the guardians? What do you think they will do when they figure out that you're gone?"

Cynder started to push her way past Zach back out the door. "That's why I need you to come with me…"

"What, so I can get blamed when the guardians wake up and we are both missing?" Zach stepped back in front of Cynder, blocking her from the door. In the state she was in, she wasn't going to be able to push past him.

"That's not exactly what I had in mind…" Cynder moved to go around the other side of Zach, but Zach cut her off again.

"Well than what did you have in mind? Why do you need me to go? Don't you think I've caused enough trouble already?" Zach was beginning to get frustrated with her.

"I need you to come with me because I know I can't make it by myself."

"I don't suppose I can talk you out of going then can I?" Zach knew where this was going. He couldn't let Cynder go, but he knew she would go anyway, and since he knew she was going to leave, if he didn't do anything, he would get blamed for it too. Cynder had trapped him into going just by showing up in his room.

Cynder simply shook her head.

Zach let out a heavy sigh, "and I don't suppose I could get you to tell the guardians where you're going?"

Cynder shook her head again, "you know they will never let me go, and we need to go after him now. He has a half-day's head start on us, he could already be to the mountain by now for all we knew."

"I doubt he could have made it that far…" Zach shuddered as he remembered the damage he had done to Spyro's wings. "He's probably had to walk part way…"

"That's why we have to go now!" Cynder pushed up against Zach, trying to push out into the hallway. "We can still catch up to him before it's too late."

"We?" Zach looked straight at Cynder. "Your dead set on me going with you aren't you."

Cynder matches Zach's gaze. "Yes I am," Cynder's eyes seemed to glisten as she regained some sense of mirth. "And you're not going to let me go by myself anyway." Zach let Cynder push her way back out into the hallway and followed closely behind her.

"You know I really don't like this right?" Zach followed Cynder down the hallway and into the next one. "If we get caught, this is all your idea."

"Don't worry. We aren't going to get caught. The guardians sleep like rocks." Zach and Cynder tread lightly though the different hallways. Eventually coming to the large central chamber that Zach had become so accustomed to. Each of the three guardians lay spiraled out in different position across the floor, creating a maze of bodies and different objects across the floor of the room.

"And how are we supposed to get past them?" Zach's comment only received a harsh glare from Cynder before she turned and began to pick her way through the maze of limbs and wings. Zach followed her path closely, but he was not as slim, nor as agile as the dragon he was following. Zach carefully placed each of his feet before advancing, making walking though the maze difficult and slow. Cynder was already on the other end of the room looking back at him with impatience.

By the time Zach managed to make it though Cynder looked like she was about to either leave him behind or smack him upside the head.

"What?"

"Could you have taken any longer? Cynder turned and started walking to the platform outside the temple, almost smacking Zach with her tail blade as she turned around.

Zach ducked under her tail and followed closely behind. "Hey, be careful with that thing!" Cynder just continued walking down the hall, seeming not to pay attention to Zach. Zach didn't say anything more, Cynder could be a moody dragon sometimes.

Zach finally caught up to Cynder when she stopped at the doorway to the platform, leaning against the doorway for support. He figured that she was simply leaning against the door to wait for him to catch up. But as he got closer, he could hear her cough slightly and rasp as she tried to breathe

"Cynder, are you ok?" Zach walked alongside of Cynder and allowed her to use him as support. He knew the obvious answer, but asked out of habit.

"Yeah… yeah I'm fine" Cynder forced herself to stand on her own. Walking slowly out to the center of the launching platform.

Zach chuckled slightly. "You do realize that I know you're not alright, right?" Zach moved in front of Cynder again, stopping her from moving any further.

"And you do realize that you are not going to stop me. I will go after Spyro, whatever it takes."

Zach shook his head, "I know that much, but at least let me help you before we go…"

Cynder turned her head back to look Zach in the eyes. "You said we…" A small smile formed on her lips.

"Yeah well I can't let you go off and hurt yourself now can I? Now hold still, I can't help you much, but I should be able help you enough that you won't have any trouble flying."

Cynder shot Zach a quizzical look, aside from when Zach had sealed her wound when she had been held captive; she had never seen him use any of his powers.

Zach reached out and placed on of his claws on Cynder's chest slightly above her lungs. Cynder immediately shrank back from the strange contact and turned herself around so she was facing Zach. "What do you think you're doing!"

Zach just stood there with his mouth slightly open, maybe he shouldn't have tried that. "Sorry Cynder, I didn't think that…"

"Obviously not… I…" Cynder cut in, but started coughing hard. She still was nowhere near being fully recovered from her last ordeal.

Zach stood by Cynder as her coughing settled down, leaving her panting and out of breath. "Now, lets try this again. I'm going to try and help settle your breathing, this may be uncomfortable for a while, but it should help."

Cynder looked at him uncertainly for a moment. "Ok."

Zach reached out his hand again and placed in on the same spot on Cynder's chest. Cynder jumped slightly at the contact but didn't move otherwise. Sparks once again shot from Zach hand and coursed into Cynder's chest. Both dragons watched intently caught in the awe of the tiny fireworks display forming between the two. Zach broke his gaze from the display and looked up at Cynder. The sparks reflected off of the tears glistening in her eyes. What was she thinking about right now?

Almost as suddenly as they had started, the sparks stopped. Zach felt the energy flow from his body stop and surge back into his body. He was beginning to develop endurance for his power, and he seemed to be able to recover more energy from sleeping then he used to.

"Uh… Zach." Zach looked up to see Cynder looking at him before she glanced down to where Zach still had his hand on her chest.

"Right, sorry." Zach turned and backed away from Cynder as the blood rushed to his face.

Cynder walked up beside him and bumped him with her front shoulder. "Hey come on, we need to get out of here before the guardians figure out that were gone."

"Well you lead the way then, because I have no idea where we are going."

Cynder turned and shot Zach a confused look again, this dragon was weird. "How do you not know where Warfang is?"

Zach almost rolled his eyes, this was getting old. "It's a long story."

"Everything is a longs story with you Zach."

"I know, but I don't think its I a good idea to tell you now, you probably wouldn't believe me anyway. Now lets go, I thought we were going after Spyro."

"Right…." Cynder stared at Zach a moment more before vaulting into the sky. Her body still hadn't fully healed, but she had enough energy to fly. Zach quickly followed suit, though his takeoff was not very graceful. Both dragons turned and headed towards Warfang and the already set sun, following the same path that Spyro had taken hours earlier, leaving the guardians none the wiser to their departure.

Spyro was in darkness again. He was standing on something, but he couldn't tell where he was. It seemed so familiar, yet he had never been here before. Again a white light formed of in the distance, starting as a small pinprick of light before racing towards him and forming into a large doorway. Without any way to stop, Spyro passed through the door of light at breakneck speed, the brilliant light blinding him as he passed into the void. Spyro blinked rapidly for a few seconds, trying to clear his vision of the speck from the blinding light. As his vision cleared, another scene formed below him. Once again he was floating above a scene on the ground. This time, he was floating above the maze that was the temple gardens. Spyro seemed to float in lazy circles above the gardens in the apparent daylight. The maze of a garden was hard to follow, even from the air. Spyro looked off into the distance, the gardens seemed to go on forever. Spyro looked over in the other direction, actually they did go on forever. No matter which direction he looked, the twists and turns of the tall hedges covered the ground.

Spyro floated down to the ground as if he were standing on an invisible platform. He hadn't moved his wings or legs, yet he still seemed to move. As his feet came in contact with the ground, Spyro seemed to snap into a different state, regaining control of his body.

Spyro looked around where he had set down. He was in the same clearing where he had met Cynder those few nights ago, where she had chased him though the maze, and where Zach had found them again… Spyro didn't know why, but something drew him through the gardens and down the same path he had taken those nights before. Spyro stopped short as he turned the last corner towards the dead end of the garden passage. Standing at the end of the row was Cynder, looking towards Spyro with a slight smile on her face.

"Cynder!" Spyro stood in shock for a moment before racing down the path towards Cynder. Cynder smiled at Spyro before turning and disappearing into the hedge behind her. Desperate to catch up, Spyro ran straight through the hedge after her, ignoring the pain from the branches scratching at his scales. Looking though the tunneled passage, Spyro caught a glimpse of Cynder disappearing into the glade beyond. Digging his talons into the dirt, he raced along the inside of the tunnel. He had to catch her before it was too late. Maybe he could stop it.

Spyro bust out of the hedge again into the familiar surroundings of the glade that he had come to know so well. Looking around, everything seemed normal. The pool of water settled quietly on the edge of the glade and a gentle breeze filtered through the trees, stirring the grass covering the grounds and making the leaves in the tree sway back and forth. Everything was peaceful and relaxing, except for Spyro who was frantically looking around for Cynder.

"Where did she go? Maybe I can find her before it's too late." Spyro thought as he frantically looked around the clearing. Spyro raced around to the other side of the clearing and stopped cold. The ground had been torn up in patches and craters marked the ground. One large crater marked the center of the clearing, and when Spyro turned around, the bark on the tree behind him was shattered and splintered. This had been there where he and Zach fought the last time. How had the scene transformed so fast? Spyro looked around at the devastation in the beautiful glade, why had this all happened. Spyro held back tears as he buried his head in his wings, so much devastation and for what? He needed to leave this place.

Spyro turned and headed back out of the clearing, but stopped when he passed the large tree in the center. Spyro's legs gave out from under him and tears flowed freely from his eyes as he was forced to relive that terrible moment yet again. Cynder lay over to the side of the glade on her side, blood flowing out of the open wound in her neck covering her in blood.

"Cynder!" Spyro raced over to Cynder again, cradling her in his claws, tears streaming down his face and mixing with her blood as it ran down their bodies. "Cynder, why did this happen to you…" Spyro lay his head down across Cynder's body, letting his tears flow as he sobbed over her body.

Spyro was startled when he felt Cynder's body shift underneath him. "Cynder?"

Cynder turned her head to look at Spyro, after a moment of staring her face turned from a look of confusion to one of terror. "No… NO! Get away from me!" Cynder struggled underneath Spyro, pushing him away from her with her claws.

Spyro couldn't move, what was wrong with Cynder, what did he do? "Cynder. Cynder, what's the matter."

"Get away form me!" Cynder kicked Spyro off of her with her back legs, sending Spyro flying though the air to crash on the ground a few feet away. Spyro picked himself off the ground confused and hurt. Cynder stood a few feet away from him, backing herself into a corner of the clearing.

"Cynder's its ok, its only me…" Spyro took a step towards Cynder, but Cynder took another step back from him. "It's ok, Zach's gone, no one can hurt you anymore."

"Get away from me Spyro!"

Cynder using his name hurt him more than anything else. "Cynder, I don't understand…"

"How can you not understand what you did to me?" Tears streamed down Cynder's face now. "Look what you did!"

"Cynder I would never…" Spyro advanced towards Cynder again, but she turned her head away before vaulting into the air though the trees above. More confused than ever, Spyro followed after her through the trees above.

In the air, Spyro could see Cynder flying yards in front of him. No matter how fast he pushed himself to catch up with her, she was always getting farther away. "Cynder!" Spyro pushed himself hard to follow Cynder, feeling his wings begin to burn as he became short of breath. But he wasn't going to stop, something was wrong. As Spyro chased Cynder over the never-ending garden, a dark crack appeared on the horizon, quickly forming into a great chasm below. Spyro thought it odd to see such a chasm, but that was not the important thing at the time.

As Spyro and Cynder flew over the gorge, Spyro watched in horror as Cynder began to falter, beating her wings out of sync and out of rhythm. Spyro dove down below Cynder to try and catch her, but before he could make the dive, Cynder's wings collapsed on themselves and Cynder plunged into the void below her. Spyro sharpened the angle of his dive in an attempt to catch Cynder, but she had already fallen too far. Spyro could only watch as he and Cynder fell deeper into the darkness of the surrounding crevice, Cynder's body eventually disappearing from view.

"Cynder!" Spyro continued his dive after Cynder, completely enveloping himself in the darkness surrounding him. Spyro flung his wings open to slow his rapid decent, but his wings caught no air, the force of his motion throwing himself off balance and spiraling out of control. As Spyro spun out of control in the darkness, his mind was still on one thing…

"Cynder!!!"

Spyro snapped back to consciousness, his eyes snapping open as he struggled to stand on his feet.

"Hey, hold still or you'll hurt yourself again." Spyro felt multiple pairs of hands hold him down as he struggled to set himself up. "Hey now I said hold still" Spyro stopped his struggling as the voice finally register in his mind. Twisting his head around, Spyro found himself staring at a large adult female dragon, and two younger dragons.

"Good to see that you're finally awake… you've been out for a while now." Spyro lay back on the table he was on as the elder dragon continued to look him over.

"Where am I?" Spyro stared at the torchlight flickering on the ceiling as he wracked himself for answers. He wasn't at the temple, he didn't know these people, and did he just see two other dragons his age. That wasn't possible.

"You in the dragon city of Warfang. Chara and Makias over there found you wandering outside the city though the woods, you were pretty banged up and your wings were striped so they brought you back here."

Spyro took a closer look at the dragons surrounding him. A blue dragon, obviously male, hovered over him, helping the elder dragon. The elder dragon tended to his wounds, checking him over again as he started to wake up. She had chalky pale red scales that flashed in the firelight coving the majority of her body. Her stomach and wing membranes were a slightly deeper shade of red. Two smooth horns swept back across her head.

But the dragon that really caught Spyro's attention was the dragon siting in the corner. She was a smaller dragon, possibly a year or two younger than Spyro, and looked at him with innocent eyes. Her scales were a brilliant crimson, with a slightly deeper shade of red running along her underside and along the bottom of her tail. All of her scales had a sheen to them, making all of her scales sparkle in the dim firelight. Two ivory horns ran from the back of her skull sweeping back down from her head. Small spikes ran along her spine ending in a arrowhead shaped tail, with the bottom tips coming back up her tail about two inches past where the spade showed. Her wings had the same dark crimson tone as the majority of her scales, while her mainstays had the darker tone as her underbelly. Siting in the corner cast shadows over her body, blending the colors together and crating flashes where the light reflected off her scales. She somehow reminded him of Cynder.

Spyro lay his head back down as tears brimmed at the edges of his eyes. The room fell silent as his quiet sobs echoed through the small room. The three other dragons watched silently as tears dripped down Spyro's face and mixed with the blood on the ground.

"Hey are you ok?" Chara walked over and stood next to Spyro, placing her head near his head.

Spyro squeezed his eyes shut to clear his eyes from the last of his tears. "Yeah… I just remembered why I was here…"

"Do you want to talk about it?" The elder dragon scooted Chara back from Spyro with her wing, giving him a little more room.

"No I'm fine…" Spyro blinked a few times to see clearly again. The elder dragon above him just nodded before turning her back and going to look for something on the shelf. After a while she shook her head

"Oh… I don't have any more antiseptic leaves. Chara, Makias, do you think you can go get some? He shouldn't be a problem now that he's awake; I should be able to take care of him by myself. Just don't take too long."

"Yeah, we can go get them." Makias spoke up from across the room.

The red elder dragon went to walk out of the room, but stopped at the door. "Oh, young dragon, I never caught you name."

"Spyro… Its Spyro…"

Each person in the room let out an audible gasp. The elder dragon stood in the doorway for a moment with her mouth open before nodding and quietly walking out of the room, leaving Spyro alone with the two younger dragons.

"Wow! You're really Spyro." The younger red dragon bounded up to Spyro again, who was still lying on his back on the table.

"Yeah unfortunately…" Spyro rolled on his stomach and tried to push himself up on the table.

"Hey now, none of that, you shouldn't be up and moving yet." Makias walked over and placed his hand on Spyro to keep him on the table.

"Makias isn't it?" Spyro turned his head at the blueish dragon helping him.

"Yeah, and that annoying little dragon over there is Chara, it's hard to believe she's less than a year younger than me." Chara shot Makias a look before smirking at Spyro.

"You two are siblings then?" This was news to Spyro. He hadn't even heard of any dragons being born after him and Cynder. "I didn't even know there were other young dragons."

"That's not too surprising, there aren't too many off us. The war kind of put a damper on things. We were some of the lucky ones."

"So you did mean her then…" Chara broke into the conversation with a slight shudder.

"What?" Spyro gave both dragons a confused look.

Makias was the one to explain it. "Before you passed out, you said 'Cynder'. You were also mumbling her name in your dreams. We figured she might have been the one that did these things to you. We've head storied of the things she did"

"Heh… I don't blame you, but you couldn't be farther from the truth." This time Makias shot Spyro the confused look. "She not the dragon she once was… either way you don't need to worry about it…"

"Hey are you ok?" Both dragons could hear the sadness in Spyro's voice. Makias could feel the uneasiness building in the room. "Come on, you need rest, lets leave him alone Chara." Makias went over and prodded Chara to leave the room. Chara slowly turned to leave the room after another forceful push by Makias. "You ever have to deal with siblings Spyro?"

Spyro thought back to his time spent with Sparks. "Yeah, don't worry about it…"

Makias left the room, but stuck his head back in for one last comment. "Hey, don't you go anywhere, you're not healthy enough to be up and about." With that, Spyro was left alone in the room.

"Well they don't know me well enough then…" Spyro struggled to his feet, standing on the table he was on. Most of his limbs had been bandaged, but none of them limited his mobility. His wings, however, were once again bandaged to his sides, he wasn't going to fly any time soon. It was probably better that way though, his wings needed the time to heal so he didn't cause any permanent damage.

Spyro slipped out of the room into the hallway. The elder dragon that was taking care of him seemed to be doing something upstairs, and Chara and Makias had already left, leaving him a straight shot to the front door. Spyro slinked along the hallway careful not to make any noise making it to the main door in a mater of seconds. He was still a little stiff, but he could move easily, his wings were the only thing that were causing him pain, and that was only when he unconsciously flexed them.

Spyro stuck his head outside, checking for anyone that may be watching him. A few torches lit the otherwise pitch-black street, but it was otherwise empty. Chara and Makias must have move away by now. Spyro stepped out of the house into the cool night air. Looking around, Spyro could see the silhouette of the city wall in the moonlight. He would need to use the gate to get out since he couldn't fly, and the earlier he got there, the less likely some one was to spot him. He would have to deal with the guards, but they shouldn't bother him too much. Spyro set off towards the outer wall of the city, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

"Cynder, slow down, you're pushing yourself too hard" Zach was yelling at Cynder from yards behind her. She had recently picked up speed, pushing herself harder and faster. "Cynder!"

Cynder continued to fly out in front of Zach, not slowing down for a single thing. "Dang it Cynder! You're going to hurt yourself. " Zach pumped his own wings harder, he needed to catch up to her before she did something stupid. Slowly, Zach began to gain ground on Cynder, approaching her from above. Zach waited till he was directly over her before trying again. "Cynder! Listen to me!"

Cynder turned her head up towards Zach. He could se that she had been crying again, the tears still streaming down her face.

Zach let out a heavy sigh, she was torturing herself for what Spyro did. "Cynder, you need to stop pushing yourself, your body can't take it."

Cynder turned her head away and pumped her wings harder to try and get ahead of Zach.. Zach saw what she was trying to do and dropped himself directly in front of Cynder, forcing her to stop in her tracks.

"Zach get out of my way!" Cynder was sobbing now, she was physically and emotionally spent. They had been flying for hours now and they had just made it to the lands outside the city of Warfang, Zach could see the lights of the city off in the distance. She couldn't take any more, Zach was astonished that she hadn't simply shut down. " Cynder you need rest, your body can't take any more of this. You have barely recovered and now you need your rest."

"Zach, we need to find Spyro, we need to find him now!" Cynder beat her wings, trying to get around Zach, but Zach copied her movements, not letting her get past him.

"Listen to me Cynder, you're going to pass out if you keep this up, and I don't know where we are. So if you want to pass out in the wilderness with only me to protect you, go ahead and keep pushing yourself, but it won't do you or Spyro any good."

Cynder paid no attention to Zach and quickly darted under him. Zach couldn't drop down in time to stop her and was forced to take off after her again. But fatigue was finally catching up with Cynder as Zach caught up with her in a matter of seconds. Zach thought through his options. He could keep chasing after Cynder all night, or he could find some way to force her to the ground. The second option would be better in the long run, but he didn't know if he could do it without hurting Cynder. But he needed to do something soon, Cynder was pushing herself far past her limits, and she wasn't listening to reason. He had heard that love makes you do crazy things, but this was a bit extreme. Zach almost laughed at the prospect. Cynder probably wouldn't admit it, but love was the exact reason that she was doing this, but now was not the time. Zach let out a heavy sigh as he positioned himself overtop of Cynder in the air. Hopefully he could do this without hurting her. But it was better to have a conscious dragon that was a little hurt and ticked off at him than an unconscious one.

Timing himself with the beat of Cynder's wings, Zach collapsed his wings and dropped on top of her, catching her with her wings outspread. Zach pushed Cynder's wings closed and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her wings to her body in one smooth motion. Cynder squealed as she felt the weight of Zach fall on top of her and her wings collapse against her side. After a moment of free falling, she tried to open her wings to find Zach pinning her wings to her side.

"Zach what are you doing, let me go!" Cynder squirmed under Zach's grasp, trying to push her wings free.

"Sorry Cynder, but if you're not going to take a break, I'm going to make you."

"You're crazy were both going to hit the ground if you don't let me go." They were still hundreds of feet off the ground, but it was approaching fast

Zach remained silent, this was his not so well thought out part of the plan, but he had an idea, hopefully it would work. Zach twisted himself parallel with the ground and threw out his wings. The sudden rush of air filled his wing membranes and jerked his wings and body up. Zach cringed as he felt the shock from the sudden deceleration, but his plan seemed to have worked. His wings were much larger than Cynder's and seemed to provide enough lift to hold both of them in the air. Zach angled his wings to direct their slow decent towards the lights of the city off in the distance, heading for a clearing in the trees Zach could see not that far away. Cynder continued to struggle under Zach's grip, digging her claws into his arms, but her fatigue quickly overtook her, causing her to rest silently in his arms. Zach ignored the pain form the gashes Cynder left and kept his arms wrapped around her as they floated down through the air.

As they neared the ground, Zach realized that he wouldn't be able to land while holding Cynder underneath him. just before they hit the ground, Zach twisted his wings, spinning himself around so he was blow Cynder with his back to the ground. Zach hit the ground hard, taking the brut of both his weight as well as Cynder's, holding her in place on his stomach. A large divot appeared in the ground where Zach had impacted and skid across the ground.

Zach groaned as he picked himself off the ground, rolling on to his side to gently set Cynder down. "Cynder? You ok?"

"If you ever do that again, I don't care for what reason, I will kill you!"

"You're ok then…" Zach rolled onto his stomach, keeping Cynder's wings pined to her side underneath him. "Now will you listen to me? Because I'm not letting you go until you listen to me."

"Do I have much of a choice?" Cynder struggled under Zach again, but he held fast.

"No, you don't. Now listen very carefully. You are too worn out to be flying right now. You need to rest before you pass out from exhaustion because if you do it will be you and me in the middle of nowhere and I really can't do anything to protect you if you're unconscious."

"Zach, we need to find Spyro, now!" Cynder squirmed underneath Zach again, trying to twist out from underneath Zach.

"Cynder, you don't get it. You are just going to get yourself into more trouble if you try and do anything now."

"But Zach!"

"But nothing, what if we got in a fight? I would be practically useless and you would be so tired we'd be overrun in seconds. Don't you think that the may be someone waiting for us if we show up?" Zach pined Cynder to the ground again. "See you too tired to even throw me off."

Cynder started thrashing underneath Zach again, but Zach easily held her to the ground. Zach took on a more comforting tone "Cynder please listen to me, You can't do this to yourself, I know you want to go after Spyro, but you're just going to make more problems if you try and keep going tonight"

Cynder's voice cracked as she opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly broke into sobbing instead.

Zach loosened his grip around Cynder, changing from restraining her to a more comforting embrace. He hoped he finally got through to her. He couldn't stand to see her like this, much less cause her pain, and he couldn't hold her down much longer. "Come on Cynder… let get you somewhere more comfortable."

"Hey you two, what are you doing outside the city so late?" A deep strong voice came from some trees behind Zach and Cynder.

Zach and Cynder both froze. This was not good. Zach turned his head to see a large male dragon coming out from the trees looking at them strangely in a slightly defensive position. He was a pale blue, but had gold tinted armor covering his head, chest, back and tail, making an imposing figure.

"Miss are you alright?" Zach stepped off of Cynder as the dragon approached, he hadn't realize the position they were in.

"Yes, I'm just a little tired" Cynder stood up and gave a weak smile, the dragon wasn't buying it.

"Love birds huh, aren't you a little young?"

"Uhh… no… were not together…" Zach felt adrenaline rush through his body. The elder dragon wasn't a threat, at least he didn't think so, but the situation did have its implications making Zach blush.

"We're siblings, we live by ourselves here in a nearby village." Cynder had spoken up from behind Zach, coming to his rescue. The guard however, still wasn't buying it.

"What were you doing out here by yourselves this late at night?"

Zach pointed to Cynder behind him. "She wanted to fly the rest of the way to our village, but I know she's too tired to do it and she needs to rest, she got into a fight recently and is still recovering." Well it was the partial truth.

"Hmm, well young dragons like yourselves shouldn't be out so late at night. I can't let you stay out here, why don't I escort you back to the city." The dragon walked over to Cynder, still keeping a weary eye on Zach.

Cynder spoke up again, "no we really need to keep going."

Zach spoke up louder cutting Cynder off, "No. We, you in particular, need to rest. We'll gladly take your offer."

The dragon looked at Zach quizzically before leaning over and whispering something to Cynder, Cynder shook her head in response. Zach couldn't hear what they were saying, but he had a pretty good guess.

"Hmm, come on then, I can carry you both back if you need it." The dragon tuned towards the faint lights Zach could see of in the distance.

"No we can make it ourselves." Cynder started walking forward, but her legs shook and she found it hard to keep her balance.

"Oh no you don't" the dragon saw this and picked up Cynder in one of his giant paws. He turned his head to Zach, "you want me to carry you too."

"No I can make it." Cynder shot Zach a look but Zach just smirked back. There was no need to make the dragon carry more than he needed to.

Both dragons took off and headed for the city. The dragons flew in silence for most of the flight, but Zach mind was on other things. Zach watched in amazement as the lights of the city slowly defined themselves and broadened out before him. He hadn't imagined they had been so far from the city, but the city was huge. It would easily take him a half-hour to fly from one end to the other. The city lights created a beautiful display below him, and Zach couldn't help but admire them.

The dragon carrying Cynder banked down and landed on the top of the wall, Zach quickly followed him down.

"Well, this is as far as I can take you, I have to get back to duty. If you need a place to stay, my wife would be more that happy to provide you with a room. She is in the medical pavilion on the other side of town. Just tell her I sent you, and if she asks ill be home soon." With that, the bluish dragon took off over the wall again and back into the world outside the city walls.

"Well that was weird." Zach stood staring at where the dragon had been. "Well, why don't we take him up on that offer, I don't know of anywhere else we could go."

"Ok fine." Cynder spread her wings to fly, but Zach stopped her.

"Oh no you don't, we're walking, and don't think I won't tackle you again."

Cynder rolled her eyes at Zach and took off walking through the city, taking streets she knew would take her towards the are the dragon had specified, he didn't even give them his name.

Zach hand Cynder walked through the dimly lit streets. For being so late at night, many of them were still full of activity. Guards walked to and fro along their patrol routes, pairs of dragons walked by on their way to their destinations, and the streets were busy with some shops open late.

"Wow, it's busy for so late at night here." Zach looked around curiously at the different architecture of the city."

"You haven't seen anything yet, the market is probably still very busy." Cynder yawned with her last sentence. Zach and Cynder kept walking until they came to a large space between the buildings filled with shops, stalls, and various races doing there shopping.

"Welcome to the marketplace, try not to get lost."

"A little late for shopping don't you think"

"Not to these people." Cynder sighed and led Zach into the market.

Zach walked through the busy market, looking at the different stalls and wares that were being sold. Not paying attention, he ran into a smaller red dragon.

"Oh sorry" the red dragon stepped out of the way and apologized to Zach.

"Oh no problem." Zach continued on his way, but was stopped by a question from the dragon.

"Hey, I haven't seen you here ever. Where did you come from?"

A blue dragon walked up alongside the red one. "Chara, it isn't polite to bother strangers."

"I'm sorry Makias, I was just curious."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to them." Makias pointed at Cynder and Zach.

Chara turned to Zach and Cynder, "Sorry"

Zach had to chuckle under his breath, they were definitely siblings. "Its no problem, we were just passing though."

"Really, so your not from the city, where are you from." The energy immediately returned to Chara's attitude.

"You really should introduce yourself you know…" Makias held an annoyed yet patient tone with his sister.

"Oh yeah, I'm Chara, and that's my older brother Makias."

Zach smiled to himself, yes they were siblings. "I'm Zach, and she's Cynder." Cynder simply nodded at the mention of her name, she walls almost asleep on her feet.

"Cynder, you don't mean THE Cynder do you?" Chara's comment got her an elbow in the ribs from her brother.

"Chara!"

"No it's ok…" Cynder was still half asleep. "Yes that was me, unfortunately, but I'm not like that anymore."

"Wow, I can't believe it, first I meet Spyro and then…"

"What! You met Spyro, where?" Cynder immediately snapped to attention at the mention of Spyro, practically knocking Chara over in her excitement and desperation. Makias went to step in between the distressed dragon and his sister, but Zach stopped him.

Zach pulled Cynder back with one of his wings. "Its ok Makias. Chara, where did you see Spyro? This is important." Zach thought to himself "and it might make Cynder go nuts again."

"We found him beaten up outside the city and brought him back for help. He should be sleeping at home right now."

"Please, take me to him." Zach could tell Cynder was restraining herself from doing anything drastic, but her anxiousness showed through.

"I don't know… Makias." Chara looked unsure of what to do

"Take them, I'll stay and get the herbs for mom." Cynder's limbs started to shake, not from fatigue but from excitement.

"Hey, I can help you get those herbs, it probably best if Spyro doesn't see me just yet." Zach motioned for Cynder to go." Go see him so you can finally get some rest."

"Hey Chara, hand him your bags." Chara took of the bags across her back and handed them over to Zach, Zach slipped the straps over his head. They were a little small, but they would work. Chara then took off and banked off towards her home. Cynder followed excitedly behind, almost passing Chara in the air. Makias and Zach both watched them disappear into the night.

"So why didn't you want to go see Spyro? Don't you know him well." Makias questioned Zach as they turned and headed into the market. Even in the dark it was still a busy place.

"Lets just say he and I aren't on the best terms right now." Makias simply nodded and left it as that. Zach loved being a guy. Other guys took you at face value and left it at that.

Makias and Zach spent the next few minutes going to different stalls and purchasing different typed of medicinal leaves, filling the back Zach carried as the purchased them. Once Makias was satisfied that they had got everything they needed, the walked back to the center of the market.

"So Makias, you lead, because I have no idea where were going."

"It's not that far, just follow me." Makias spread his wings to jump into the air, but Zach caught a glimmer of color behind Makias.

Zach jumped for Makias, "Makias! Duck!"

Cynder impatiently followed Chara to a pavilion not far from the marketplace they had just left. The dragon in font of her couldn't fly fast enough. Cynder and Chara landed and stepped silently inside.

"Wait here a second." Chara stepped in a side room for a moment before coming back out with a confused look on her face. "Mom!"

A large dragon appeared in from another room on the bottom floor, "oh, you're back already, and who is this?" The dragon looked at Cynder.

"Mom, did you move Spyro from his room?"

The elder dragon took on a worried expression. "No I didn't, I went back in the room not long after you left and he was already gone."

Cynder felt her heat break. She had been so close, and Spyro had slipped away from her again. The tears began to fall as Cynder ran back outside, letting them splash on the ground as she stood outside crying. Why did she have to get her hopes up only to have them dashed time and time again? After a while, Chara came out and put a comforting wing around Cynder. "Hey now, I'm sure he's still in the city somewhere. He can't fly with the bandages we put on him, and the guards won't let him out till alt least daybreak, we'll find him." Chara stood with Cynder for a few minutes, Cynder quietly crying the whole time.

Thought the tears and sobs Cynder felt Chara shift. "Hey? What's that?"

Cynder looked up to see smoke and a pillar of fire not too far off in the distance.

"That's coming from the market, I hope Makias is ok."

But other things were on Cynder's mind. Spyro was still somewhere in the city, and Zach was at the market place… It wasn't Makias that she was worried about.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Repercussions

Zach tackled Makias to the ground and the two rolled through the dirt coming to a stop a few feet away.

Makias lay on the ground confused and disoriented. Dust clouded his vision and he could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears "What was that for?"

Before he could orient himself, Zach wrapped an arm around his side and rolled over, bringing Makias overtop of him. Makias landed hard on his side in the dirt again, dust obscuring his vision again and clogging his lugs. His body groaned in pain and he didn't want to move, but Zach had kept his arm wrapped around him and was pushing him up onto his feet. "Zach, what are you doing!" Makias stumbled, tripping over his own feet as he tried to stand up. What the heck was going on? His head was spinning and Zach was throwing him around like a rag doll, and there was so much dust and in the air that he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him

"Makias! Move!" Zach thew himself against Makias again pushing him to the ground before turning and running the other direction. Makias bounced along the ground again, the dirt and stones scraping against his scales. Enough was enough, Makias rolled along the ground and used his momentum to set himself on his feet. Orienting himself, Makias found the market had been thrown into utter chaos. Dust and smoke filled the air clouding his vision and making it hard to breathe. Screams filled the air as different races scrambled to find their loved ones and escape the chaos of the courtyard. But what could have caused such a disturbance. Makias fanned his wings, clearing the dust and smoke from the area immediately surrounding him. What he saw shocked him. Various small fires burned in the market stalls and courtyard. They were not large or dangerous, but they created a thick acrid smoke that filled the air. Dragons not used to fighting scampered away from the scene while various animal guards arrived on the scene, their attention fixed on something that Makias couldn't see. Makias moved his way out of the acrid smoke, coughing on smoke as he stepped into the fresh air.

"Hey kid, get out of there!" One of the guards was motioning at Makias, beckoning for him to come over. Makias quickly bounded over to the mole that had beckoned through the blowing smoke. When he reached the line of guards, they pushed him to the back of their lines, forcing him out of the courtyard. Makias immediately turned back around, but one of the guards at the back of the line stopped him.

"Now where do you think you're going?" The guard stepped in front of Makias stopping him for the moment.

"What's going on in there?" Makias turned his body to try and see around the guard, but the guard stepped in front of him again.

"Hey kid, you should get home, yore parents are probably worried about you now." The guard started pushing Makias away with his shield, turning Makias back away from the courtyard. "Its not you're problem anyway." The guard let out heavy sigh and turned back towards his companions, standing and trying to peer though the thick smoke, however none of the guard moved to enter the courtyard, instead the stood in a protective bunch, scanning the skies and the courtyard.

"At least tell me what's going on in there, why aren't you doing anything?" Makias walked back to the group of guards, trying to push his way back into the courtyard. Zach was still in there.

The guard that had push Makias away turned back around. "Hey! I thought I told you to get out of here, this is no place for you right now. You're lucky you got out of there last time. If that white dragon hadn't stepped in, I'm not sure what would have happened."

Another explosion sounded somewhere in the courtyard, each of the guards ducked and many raised their shields to cover their heads. Makias could here many of them muttering to themselves.

"Where is the dragon guard?"

"They're supposed to take care of things like this."

"How are we supposed to stop dragons?"

Makias peered over the guards back into the courtyard. Thick black smoke filled the air and rolled along the ground, small fires still burned on the ground, casting an eerie red glow along the surrounding buildings.

Makias moved to work his way though the row of guards but he was stopped again. " I already told you kid, get out of here. We have to keep everyone out of there."

Makias gave the guard a sideways glance. It always had to be the hard way. He didn't want to cause any more trouble, but sometimes things just needed to be done. Makias backed up a few steps before vaulting into the air and over the guards' heads. Many of the guards let out irritated cries for him to return, but he paid no attention to them. Makias flew the short distance into the courtyard though the smoke and ash, he turned around to look at the guards, most glared at his with irritated looks but none made any attempt to go after him. Instead they stayed in the safety of their group on the edge of the courtyard, some good they were doing.

Makias moved deeper into smoked filled market, keeping himself low to the ground to keep from breathing in the thick smoke. He could hear yelling coming from the center of the courtyard and headed that way. He didn't have a plan and he didn't really know what he was getting into, but he felt that he needed to find out what was going on. He had been a part of it anyway.

Crawling along the ground, Makias broke through the smoke that encircled the market, leaving him lying on the ground hidden by the smoke and darkness. He sat there in silent shock at the scene that was unfolding in front of him.

Spyro and Zach faced off in a small clearing at the center of the market. Spyro had his back turned to Makias, but he could see that Spyro was on the offensive. His muscles tensed in anticipation as he stared across at Zach. The tattered bandages wrapped around his wings bulged out as his wings unconsciously spread themselves into a fighting position. Zach was facing Makias, but his attention was fully riveted on Spyro. His normally white scales were covered with soot and scorch marks giving him a battle weary appearance. His limbs shook as he stood his ground against Spyro, but Makias could tell he was losing the fight. They were yelling at each other, but Makias couldn't quite catch what they were saying.

Spyro abruptly shot a wave of fire at Zach, chasing after him as he did so. Zach dove out of the way as the wave of fire splashed on the ground in front of him. Spyro quickly broke through the wave of fire burning on the ground and rammed Zach in the chest with his horns.

Zach jumped back again to soften the blow, but still landed coughing hard. Spyro went after Zach again with his tail, lashing out at Zach's legs. Zach tried to jump over the low swing, but his legs buckled and Spyro's tail lashed across his forelegs.

Makias looked on in confusion as the two dragons battled it out in the center of the chaos. How had Spyro recovered enough to fight like this, and what had gone on between Zach and Spyro to cause them to fight like this. Spyro seemed intent on tearing Zach apart while Zach didn't seem to be fighting back.

Makais looked up into the sky. Now he understood why the guards were staying out of this, it would cause them more harm than good if they got in the middle of a fight between dragons. Hopefully, one of the dragon guard would show up before they completely tore up the courtyard.

Makias turned his attention back to the fight in just enough time to see Spyro slam his foot into the ground, sending a pillar of earth straight up into Zach jaw. Zach spun through the air before crashing to the ground. Spyro walked over to where Zach was lying on the ground baring his teeth as a growl resonated deep within his throat. Spyro raised one of his paws and sunk his claw deep through Zach's wing membranes, causing Zach to cry out in pain. Makias stifled a gasp as he realized how serious this was. Spyro was ready to kill Zach.

Makias bolted from his hiding place and jumped in between Zach and Spyro. Spyro reeled back and growled while Zach had a look of shock on his face. "Spyro what are you doing?"

"Get out of the way Makias, this doesn't concern you!" Spyro's words resonated with a feral growl in his throat. Makias felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked at Spyro. Something had changed in his since he had left their home. His scales had turned a deeper shade of purple, not quite black but close to it. Dark energy rippled over his body, like he was standing under water and his scales caught the reflection. His pupils were barely visible in his shining white eyes, flickering every time he blinked his eyes. But his voice is what sent Makias over the edge; it sounded like Spyro had multiple voices, each darker than the last.

"Spyro, what's wrong with you?" Makias took a step back but remained between him and Zach.

"Makias, I already told you, this doesn't concern you! Now get out of my way!" Spyro took a few threatening steps towards Makias but he held his ground.

"What? so you can kill Zach, I don't think so."

"If you knew what he had done, you wouldn't be protecting that murderer." Spyro let out a low threatening growl again.

"Murderer?" Makias felt lost and confused. murderer? What had Zach done, maybe he wasn't protecting the innocent one. "Zach?"

"That's right, he killed Cynder, and I'll never forgive him for that!"

This conversation was leaving Makais more confused with every answer. "Cynder? Spyro she isn't dead, she's here in Warfang."

Zach was finally out of his daze and up off the ground behind Makias. "Makias get out of here and go get Cynder, she's the only one who is going to snap him out of this."

Spyro let out another roar. "Liar! You're just like him." Spyro lunged at Makias but Zach pulled him out of the way as Spyro streamed past.

"Go! Now!" Zach pushed Makias out of the way as he turned back to Face Spyro.

"Zach what's going on?" Makias backed out of the way as Spyro lunged at Zach again. Zach caught Spyro Square in the chest, rolling onto his back and kicking Spyro off of him again. Spyro landed hard on his back on a merchant's stall behind the group while Zach rolled back onto his feet.

"Long story Makias… but now is not the time" Zach took a quick glance over his shoulder at Spyro who was still digging himself out of the rubble.

"Zach, was he telling the truth, did you really…"

Zach let out a heavy sigh before answering, "yes and no."

This time Makias took steps back from Zach. "Why?"

"Look, it's a long story, and the short version ends up that Cynder is not dead, I didn't kill her, and we've been chasing down Spyro trying to stop him from doing something stupid like this." Zach checked over his shoulder again, Spyro was almost out of the rubble, he didn't have much more time.

"But that doesn't make any sense…"

"I already told you, it's a long story, but you need to go get Cynder or Spyro is going to tear the whole town apart. I don't expect you to trust me, but you need to go now!" Zach turned around again only to get struck in the side by a blast of lightning from Spyro. Zach rolled across the ground as Spyro stepped back into the center of the clearing turning his attention to Makias. Zach picked himself off the ground as Spyro advanced towards Makias. "Makias! Go!"

Makias tuned from Spyro and vaulted into the air. He had somehow caught himself in something he couldn't understand and the last place he wanted to be was in between those two. Cynder seemed to be the cause of Spyro's distress. That would explain why she was so anxious to see him. Zach seemed to think she could stop Spyro so it was worth a shot. Makias turned and headed back towards home.

Zach watched as Makias flew out of the courtyard. Hopefully he could find Cynder before Spyro pummeled him to death. Spyro watched Makias leave and was preparing to launch an attack after him but a quick shout from Zach brought his attention back.

"Spyro, leave him out of this, he didn't do anything."

Spyro quickly turned his attention back to Zach, his teeth bared as he crouched back into a fighting position. "You're right Zach, this is between you and me."

A shock wave of energy rippled out from Spyro slamming into Zach and forcing him to take a step back to keep his balance. The buildings around Zach groaned for the force of the wave, more dust falling from the walls.

"Spyro will you listen to anything I say?" Zach stood his ground as Spyro advanced up closer to him, stopping a few feet away to circle him.

"Unless it's your dying screams, no." Spyro's cold flat voice sent chills down Zach's spine. Spyro was dead set on killing him. Hopefully Makias could bring Cynder back before that happened.

Spyro sprang at Zach, catching him off guard and slamming him up into a nearby building. Zach felt talons dig into his side before being thrown across the ground again. Spyro jumped after Zach again, but Zach rolled out of the way before Spyro's talons could reach him. Spyro skidded past where Zach had once been, using his momentum to swing himself back around to face Zach again.

"Think about what you're doing Spyro, this isn't you!"

"What do you know about me?" Spyro roared in anger again before loosing a short bolt of lightning, striking Zach in the shoulder. Zach staggered from the impact before getting slapped in the head with the end of Spyro's tail.

"Spyro, Cynder isn't dead. She is here in the city and she is looking for you! What would she think about you doing this?"

Spyro answered by tackling Zach, rolling around on the ground before pinning him to the ground, his talons digging into his shoulders. "You are a liar and a coward! Hiding behind her!"

Zach struggled under Spyro but it was no use, he couldn't fight his way out of this one. "Won't you have any remorse for this, any at all. Think about what you're doing!"

Spyro dug his claws deeper into Zach's shoulders causing him to groan in pain. "I have no remorse for you. You had no remorse for killing Cynder, nor will I have any remorse for killing you."

Zach tried talking to Spyro again, but it was difficult though the pain and the pressure of Spyro on top of his chest. "Spyro, I told you… she isn't… dead…"

Spyro let out another wave of energy, slamming Zach's head against the ground. "I can't believe you, you would do anything to save your own skin. But it doesn't matter, your life ends here Zach!" Spyro brought his tail blade around and poised it above Zach's throat. Zach closed his eyes, waiting to feel the blade rip though his flesh. Zach felt Spyro tense up as he swung his tail.

Zach cried out as he felt the blade rip and tear its way through the flesh on his body. Pain rippled though his body and he felt blood start to spill out through the open wound. Zach reached up with his hands to stop himself from bleeding out, but as he moved his hands, pain rippled though an injury in a different location than he expected. Zach opened his eyes to look himself over. Spyro was nowhere in sight and instead of a laceration across his throat; a large gash ran along his chest and stomach from his left shoulder blade down across his collarbone before arcing down along his side. But the fact that Spyro had missed his neck didn't make the injury any less life threatening. The gash was extremely deep and had come dangerously close to vital organs. Zach felt himself slipping from consciousness as he continued to lose blood. Concentrating all the energy he had left, Zach tried to force what power he had towards stopping the bleeding, and keeping himself conscious. If he lost consciousness, he would lose it all.

Spyro poised himself above Zach, his blade ready to take the life of the dragon that was the source of his rage. He had taken the thing that was the most precious to him, and now he lied about it to his face. No more hesitation. Spyro brought his tali down across Zach with all the force he could, but before the blade connected with Zach, Spyro was hit in the side and sent rolling across the courtyard, the blade missing its intended mark but still connecting with his target. Spyro shook his head to clear his head, but someone pinned him to the ground and stood on top of him.

"I swear Spyro, if you ever… EVER! Do anything like this again, I will chain you to a wall in the bottom of the temple and never let you leave!"

Spyro opened his eyes and his jaw went slack at the sight before him. Spyro couldn't feel his body anymore, every part of him was numb and he couldn't tell if what he was seeing before him was real or a dream.

"Don't you learn anything Spyro, what did you think running away was going to do anyway?" The voice broke in the middle of the sentence, anger melting away to become concern.

"Cynder?"

"Yes its me you idiot." Cynder's anger broke down into tears of joy, crying over the dragon she thought she was too late to save.

"Cynder…" Spyro reached up with one of his claws and wiped the tears off of Cynder's face. Cynder collapsed, falling onto Spyro who held her in a strong embrace. Everything was going to be ok.

Makias made it to the clearing moments after Cynder, dropping down to the ground trying to find someone through the smoke and debris. Seeing no one, Makias moved towards where he thought Cynder had landed. He had found her already franticly flying towards the courtyard from their home. When they had flown closer to the smoke, Cynder pulled ahead of him and his sister, with Chara following closely behind her. He had tried to keep up but his body was sore and he couldn't quite keep their pace. As he picked his way through the rubble, he glanced at the damage around him. It wasn't as bad as he had expected there were only a few stalls on fire and the surroundings buildings seemed unscathed.

"Makias! Makias!"

Makias heard his sister's voice cut through the air, the fear evident as she cried out his name.

"Chara! Where are you?" He had almost forgotten about her, she had followed Cynder back towards the market. Makias quickened his pace, "please let her be ok"

"Makias!"

Makias followed the sound of his sister's voice. The market was not that large, but the smoke mixed with the darkness made it difficult to see. "Chara!"

"Over here." Makias turned his head and saw the outline of a dragon though a nearby cloud of smoke, if they weren't calling out to each other, he may have missed it. Makias turned and ran though the smoke, ignoring the irritation it caused his eyes, coming out the other side with blurred vision.

"Makias do something!" Chara was pleading with him now.

"Chara… what…" Makias was interrupted by a groan from the ground. Looking down he saw Zach lying on his back with a devastating gash across his chest, blood still seeping out of the wound. "Zach!"

"Makias, you have to do something to help him." Chara pranced about nervously around Zach, trying to do something to help but not knowing exactly what to do.

Makias leaned down over Zach. "Hey! Zach, are you still conscious?" Makias began wiping away what blood he could while trying to check on Zach.

Zach groaned and fluttered his eyelids. "Huh?" Zach tried to raise his arms but his injury prevented him from doing so, Zach's mouth opened in silent a groan as his body registered the pain that shot though his body.

"Hey now, I need you to stay awake for me now, I'm going to see what I can do for you." Makias turned his attention back to Zach's wound. The deep gash was slowly seeping out blood. It was too deep to heal back together on its own and to long for him to hold together. He couldn't fix it here, but he had to do something to stop the bleeding, he wasn't left with too many options.

"This may be uncomfortable for a bit, but I need you to stay still now Zach."

Zach responded by nodding his head slightly

Makias moved closer to Zach injuries, from what he could see the gash had managed to avoid his heart and lungs by mere inches. Someone had been watching out for Zach today. "Chara, I'm going to need your help."

Chara moved over and positioned herself over Zach's head, holding down his shoulder with her front paws, Zach simply grunted and rolled his head to the side. Makias opened his mouth slightly and blew a steady stream of cold air and ice particles onto the edge of Zach wound. As Makias worked, the cold air and ice froze Zach's blood where it was and created a cast of Ice over Zach's wound preventing it from bleeding out any more.

Zach jerked at the sudden cold on his skin, tensing the muscles in his chest, but Chara put her full weight down on Zach preventing him from moving. Makias moved slowly down the wound across Zach's chest, forming an icy cast that held the wound together. Makias stopped once he reached the other end of the wound and looked over his work. A thin sheet of ice stretched along the length of the wound holding the two edges together and preventing Zach from bleeding out. The blood caught in the ice gave it a red tint, diluting the usually blue ice. It would hold for now, but it was by no means a permanent solution. Makias looked back up at Zach, the dragon was shivering on the ground and Makias wasn't sure if it was from loss of blood or the icy cast.

"Zach? How are you feeling?" Makias was still worried about what kind of a state Zach was really in.

"I feel like I was the stuntman in a movie with a bad plot, but other than that I'm fine." Zach smiled at him even though his teeth were chattering loudly.

Makias smiled to himself, Zach seemed to be alert to what was going on around him. He should be fine for now. All they needed to do was find a way to get him out of here. There was no way Zach was going to be able to move on his own. "Good to see you're ok for now… but we're going to have to move you somehow, I stopped the bleeding for a while, but that cast can't be there too long or it will cause more harm than good. You know you're luck you haven't passed out. That wound must look worse than it actually is."

"Somehow I don't think so." Zach closed his eyes as he laid his head back down on the ground, but Makias stomped on his tail. "Hey what was that for?"

"No going to sleep on me now."

"Ugh…" Zach lay on the ground staring up through the smoke into the night sky. It would be peaceful if his body wasn't screaming in pain at him. "Hey Makias"

"Hmm?" Makias seemed less concerned with Zach's condition as he checked his sister over for any injuries, she seemed more shook up than anything else.

"How are they doing?"

"What?" Makias looked down at Zach before looking across the courtyard to where Spyro was finally helping Cynder off the ground. "Oh them? There fine… well close enough anyway."

"Close enough is good enough for them… so what do we do now? Because I'm not going to lay here all night."

Makias said another silent word to his sister before turning back to Zach. "Well we could try to move you.. But I'm the only one who is in any shape to carry you right now, and even then the movement would probably brake the cast…"

"So…" Zach started to close his eyes again, but Makias stepped on his tail again.

"So you're probably going to have to wait until either a someone else shows up to carry you or we figure out some other way to move you."

"Well this sucks…" Zach turned his head to look over at Spyro and Cynder. They were keeping their distance from him, standing a few yards away. Cynder was leaning her full weight against Spyro, practically sleeping on her feet. Spyro wasn't faring much better, but he was forcing himself to stay awake for Cynder's sake. Zach and Spyro made brief eye contact but quickly broke away; things were going to be awkward for a while.

It wasn't long before the group of young dragons heard wing beats overhead, quickly followed by a large blue dragon covered in armor. Zach cringed when he realized that it was the same dragon that had escorted them into the city. This was going to be an interesting situation to explain. The dragon landed in the center of the group, using powerful beats of his wings to clear away the last whips of smoke form the now burnt out fires.

"Dad!" Makias and Chara both ran over and brushed up against the elder dragon's legs, the elder dragon looked down in surprise at the two younger dragons.

Zach stared. Dad? Things just kept getting more complicated, and it always seemed to turn out worse for him.

"Chara? Makias? What are you doing here? Its dangerous, don't tell me you were a part of this." He put out his paw to stop Makias and Chara who looked up into the dragons piercing gaze.

"No we weren't I swear, but we need your help right now, we need to get one of these dragons back home, he's beat up pretty bad." Makias father looked up from where he was standing and looked over at the other dragons in the group. Cynder was still leaning against Spyro, who was starting to lean on Cynder for support himself, and Zach was lying on the ground. A look or recognition crossed his face as he recognized the dragons he led into the city before being replaced by a look of confusion.

"Does someone want to explain what's going on here?"

Zach yelled from his spot in the courtyard, his head never leaving the ground. "It's a long story."

"I can only imagine," The dragon muttered to himself, "but I suppose we should get you help first. Makias, who needs help the most?"

Makias pointed to Zach. "He does, there's a pretty deep gash on his chest, I put a cast on it but mom is going to have to work on it, and none of us can carry him home without breaking the cast."

The dragon walked over to Zach, nodding as he notices the cast. "I see…" he turned over to Spyro and Cynder, "are you two well enough to fly?"

Cynder propped herself up off of Spyro's shoulder, her voice weary from exhaustion. " I am… but Spyro's in no condition to fly."

Zach saw the dragon's head jerk as he heard Spyro's name, but he quickly regained his composure as he pick Zach up with one of his giant hands.

"I suppose I could carry you too then, come on over here, we haven't got all night."

Spyro left Cynder and hobbled over to the large dragon who roughly scooped him up while balancing on his hind legs. "Come on now, lets get these two home quickly, time is of the essence."

Zach craned his neck toward the dragon from his awkward position. "Thank you… err…"

"You can call me Glacier, but I wouldn't be thanking me yet. I intend to hold one of you responsible for this."

"I suppose I should expect that…" Zach fell into a dulled state of consciousness as the dragon lifted off from the ground and headed towards home. Zach couldn't tell if it was minutes or hours before he finally felt the dragon touch down on the ground, jarring him back to full alert. The ice cast was beginning to fall apart, letting blood seep through the cracks.

Zach felt the air around him warm up as he was carried though the doorway into what seemed to be a medical room. The room smelled of a heavy bleach and anesthetic and Zach was set down on a cold hard table in the center of the room. Zach groaned as the cast across his chest splintered and cracked, blood seeping out and staining his chest. Zach heard heavy footsteps enter the room another large dragon stopping over him.

"My word… what is happening to cause all these dragons to have them end up here like this?" As Glacier left the room, the other elder dragon breathed a jet of warm air over the cast on Zach chest, slowly melting the ice away and restoring the blood flow. Zach cringed as the sharp pain returned to his chest, blood flowing freely from the open wound.

"Makais see what you can do about that blood." Zach saw Makias come into the corner of his vision as he wiped a fresh cloth around the edges of the wound.

"Hmm… this wound doesn't seem to be that bad." Zach could hear the anxiety and apprehension drain from the older dragon's voice, giving him a sense of security.

"Huh? Makias was now leaning over Zach, looking over his chest. "I swear it was worse that that when I found him."

"Don't worry Makias, you did the right thing…" Makias' mother moved away from Zach and came back holding long strips of linen.

"No its not that…" Makias moved Zach's arm to allow his mother to start wrapping the bandages around Zach's chest. Zach let himself be moved around like a rag doll, he was too tired to do anything else. "There's something else… look" Makias moved his talon a few inches above Zach wound. "There is fresh scar tissue there… there's no way that should be there."

Makias' mother shot Zach a quizzical look "well… you're not in any danger anymore… but you should definitely stay here and rest a while."

"I think I'll be fine," Zach tried rolling himself off the table but both the large dragoness and Makias stopped him.

"Oh no you're not. Now you stay here and sleep, someone will come get you later when you're rested."

Zach let himself be pushed back onto the table while someone put a blanket overtop of him. "Now stay here, I won't be very happy if I have to keep forcing you to lay back down, with that wound it should be a few days till you can walk normally again anyway."

Zach simply shifted on the table to a more comfortable position.

"Flare?" Glacier had stuck his head though the door, motioning for the elder dragon to join him. Flare walked out of the room to join her mate, followed closely by Makias.

Flare followed her mate upstairs to their room, leaving Makias downstairs with the other young dragons. She could see the anxiety in her mate's actions as he paced around the room.

"Flare, should they really be here right now? Those other dragons… I really should take them to consul now."

"No Glacier, they need to stay here and rest. All of them are exhausted and have extensive injuries, they're not going to go anywhere." She was definite in her answer. They may have done something wrong, but right now they were in need of her help, and she wasn't going to deny it to them simply because of a technicality.

"But you know I have to take them in eventually… people are going to want to know what happened."

"Yes, I know, but that can wait until tomorrow. Let them get some rest now… please…" Flare walked up to Glacier and pressed her tail spade against his chest, stopping his constant pacing around the room.

"I don't feel safe with them in the house with Makias and Chara, something about them just doesn't seem right."

"Glacier, they won't be able to move, much less cause any harm in the state they're in."

A heavy sigh resounded through the room. "I suppose, but no more than one night."

There was hesitation before Flare answered. "Fair enough."

Glacier still wasn't completely convinced. "But something still bothers me, I found two of those dragons outside the city just before they started the fight. Talking to them… it seemed like they were hiding something, but I don't know what. And now there's a purple dragon in the mix. Something just doesn't seem right."

"I know, I know… but you can ask them about it in the morning, right now they all need their rest."

Flare gave Glacier a quick peck on the check before turning and heading back downstairs, Glacier not far behind her. When she got downstairs again she found all five dragons in the central room. Chara was off by herself in on of the corners, apparently doing something to keep herself busy, Spyro and Cynder talked quietly with each other though it looked like both were ready to pass out from exhaustion, and Makias made small talk with Zach who had snuck out of his room to join the others.

"Hey! I thought I told you not to move…" Flare was staring at Zach intently, disapproval written all over her face.

Zach looked at the ground, "sorry, but I can't stand not being part of a conversation."

"You keep this up and that wound will never heal..." Flare gave him another disapproving glance. "Well since you're out here I suppose you could move to a more comfortable bed."

Flare got right down to business "Ok Spyro, you can share Makias' room," she pointed to the room closest to them, "and Cynder, you can share a room with Chara, I'm sorry but we don't have that much extra room. Zach, seeing as you are up and about, you may have to sleep out here, once again I'm sorry but we don't have that much extra room and you're the least injured."

"That's not a big deal, I'll be fine" Zach made limped his way over to a selection of pillows looking for one to bed down on, his injury and the bandages still restricting his movement. He wondered how he was considered the 'least injured'.

Spyro broke into the conversation again. "I can sleep with Cynder if you need more room, I don't mind." While they had separate rooms at the temple, he had slept next to her enough times on their travels together.

Flare came back with an obviously hesitant voice, "no… I don't think so, I think we'll keep things the way they are, and it will give everyone their space."

Zach snickered to himself across the room; Spyro had no idea what he was getting himself into.

"Oh I don't mind being a little close…"

Zach turned around to see a look of controlled shock on Flare's face and one of amusement on Glaciers', everyone else seemed to ignore what Spyro had unintentionally implied, but Cynder's face was turning bright red. The picture was priceless. Zach lost it and bust out laughing. All heads turned to him, looks of disapproval on the adults' faces and confusion on the younger dragons. Zach still snickered to himself as he tried to compose himself and come up with a reply. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that… lack of sleep… and I'll be fine Spyro, you sleep in Makias' room."

Spyro was still confused as to why Zach was laughing and gave him an inquisitive look. "Ok… if you say so." He took on a much wearier demeanor as he walked into the room. "I have to get some sleep."

"No kidding" Zach called after him. Cynder turned and called after him as well.

"No running off while we're asleep this time… ok?"

Her only reply was a muffled thud as Spyro dropped himself on the cushions inside of Makais' room.

"Well that settles that then…" Cynder looked around the room. Zach seemed to already be sleeping in his corner of the room and Makias walked into his own room after Spyro. She, Chara, and the adults were the only ones left in the room.

"Chara, why don't you show Cynder her room. I'm sure she wants to get to sleep as well."

Chara turned to face Cynder, bouncing on her toes and her voice bright and energetic. "Sure thing. This way Cynder!"

Cynder cringed at the energy in Chara's voice, she was too happy for her taste right now. If she weren't so tired she would have grimaced in disgust. Chara bounded down the hallway a few steps before turning into one of the rooms on the right. Cynder followed quickly after, parting the curtain in the room to see Chara throwing pillows onto a different part of the floor.

"I hope that's enough for you."

"Yeah that's fine." She would take the cold hard ground as a bed right now, she didn't really care how, but she needed sleep. Cynder pushed the haphazard pile of pillows together before plopping down in the middle, instantly closing her eyes and falling asleep to the incessant chatter of something Chara was saying in her ear.

Spyro woke up again drenched in sweat. It was another nightmare about Cynder. Spyro cradled his head in his hands as he felt hot tears stream down his face. The nightmare seemed all too real, and they were becoming more frequent. And they all ended with the same thing, Cynder accusing him of killing her.

Spyro buried his face in the pillows to muffle the sobs that escaped his throat. Every time he turned a corner, every time he took a new step in his life, there was something different to haunt him.

But this dream should never become a reality, granted she was not next to him, Cynder was here and she was safe. Tomorrow they would be able to get the whole ordeal straightened out and go back to the temple.

Spyro let out a heavy sigh as he recalled all that had happened in the last few days, none of this would have happened if it were not for him. It really was all his fault. Maybe he should go apologize to Cynder.

Spyro smiled to himself despite the tears on his face, he was making excuses to himself to go and see her, and why not? They had barely spoken to each other in the few minutes they spent together from exhaustion and most of the words they exchanged were about injuries and sleep.

Spyro picked himself up off the pillows and looked over his shoulder. Makias seemed to be sound asleep next to him. As quietly as he could manage, Spyro worked his way out of the room in the dark, carefully placing his steps as he made his way towards the curtain that separated the rooms.

Spyro quickly moved into the large room outside, looking down the hallway trying to figure out what room Cynder might be in. Spyro pressed himself against the wall and turned right down the hallway.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Spyro stopped in his tracks and swiveled his head around looking for the source of the voice in the darkness of the room around him. It didn't take long for him to find Zach lying in the center of the room. Spyro's lip curled up slightly and a low growl resounded at the back of his throat.

"So I'm going to give you a few options here Spyro. One: you can turn around and walk back into your room."

Spyro ignored him and took another step down the hallway. Zach seemed unfazed by his actions.

"Or two: you try to leave again, I tackle you, we fight and wake everyone else, and we get in even more trouble than we are already in."

Spyro tensed his muscles, his talons curling and gouging the soft rock underneath him. Every part of him wanted to lash out at that dragon… but unfortunately he was right, he couldn't afford to get into another fight. Things were strained enough as it was. Spyro breathed in deeply and relived some of the tension from his body. He could take Zach easily, but now was not the time. A deep growl resonated in his throat as Spyro turned and walked back into his room, his tail lashing the air behind him showing his defiance against the refinement to his room.

"Hey I wasn't done…"

Spyro stopped abruptly, his talons digging into the soft rock underneath him again. That dragon was so stuck up… Spyro tensed up again, whipping around to face Zach, His body clearly visible now in the dim light.

"…Or three: Cynder is in the third room on the right…" Zach had a smirk on his face as he motioned down the hallway with one of his wings.

Spyro's breath caught in his throat. "What?"

"You heard me…" Zach was almost laughing now. Spyro had gone from such a state of anger to one of shock and anticipation. He should really stop toying with him, Spyro didn't trust him very much and would take everything he said seriously. "Hey look, I know we didn't start off on the right foot, and that's putting lightly, but I'm not trying to get in your way. I'll get out of your hair as soon as I can." Zach turned around and set himself down on his bed again, curling up to go to sleep.

Spyro yearned to go see Cynder again, they barely had any time to comfort each other before they had been whisked back here and put in separate rooms. Looking down the hall he could see her room just like all the others, but her room held his gaze, she was so close… Spyro tore his gaze from the hallway and turned back to Zach. He was still lying in the center of the room, looking uninterested as to what Spyro was going to do. Spyro let out a heavy sigh, he wanted so much to be with Cynder, but Zach deserved some of his time right now, and a small amount of trust. There were some questions he wanted answered and now could be the best chance he got for a while. Spyro walked over and lay down next to Zach. Zach turned his head towards Spyro and raised an eyebrow, confused as to why Spyro was choosing to stay with him.

"Hey, that's not one of the options I gave you…" Zach smirked as he jested at Spyro, "but seriously, what's up, I though you would jump at the chance to go see Cynder again…"

"You have no idea, I want to go see her so badly right now," Spyro blushed slightly in the moonlight having said his feelings out loud to another person. "But, you deserve some of my time right now… there are some things I want to ask you."

Zach shifted to a more comfortable position, this could get long and awkward. "Ok, fair enough, but there are some things I may not be able to tell you."

"Like what?"

"Certain things" Zach tried to stray as far from the topic as he could.

"Hmm…" Spyro seemed to be letting Zach slide for now. "Ok fist things fist. Why, why did you do this, why is it that the last time I saw you, you were trying to kill us, but now you risked your life to help Cynder."

Zach let out a heavy sigh, "I figured you would ask sooner or later, but before I tell you, let me ask you one thing. When you find yourself consumed by the darkness, do you try and fight it or does it consume you? Do you remember your actions and once the darkness passes? Do you regret the things you did?"

"Are you saying that you were held by the darkness when you attacked us the fist time?" it was Spyro's way of avoiding the question.

"Sort of. Do you remember our last fight and how it ended with you lunging at me?"

Spyro flashed back to that fight. He had been ready to kill Zach again, and he had almost succeeded. He remembered lunging for Zach's throat, but something had physically stopped him before he could land the final blow. "Yeah, why?"

"That thing you ran into, it was a collar of sorts, kind of like the one that bound you and Cynder together, but instead of binding me to something, it was influencing me, deciding my actions. I know it sounds like a lame excuse but I wasn't in control of my actions."

"Hmm… I suppose that would make sense…"

"Wait. Are you saying you believe me? That easily?"

"Why not? Zach, I've seen things that you wouldn't believe, and it doesn't surprise me that Malefore could come up with something as evil as that." Spyro turned and looked at Zach. "But don't think you're out of the woods yet. You still have some things to answer for."

Zach turned onto his back and let out a heavy sigh, "yeah, I know…"

Zach and Spyro sat in silence for a few minutes, both of them reflecting on the events of the past few days. Zach started to become anxious having Spyro sitting so close to him. "Didn't you come out here to do something other than talk to me Spyro?"

Spyro grunted as he stood back onto his feet. "Yeah I did, but I don't know, maybe I shouldn't."

"What? Are you afraid she is going to yell at you or something, because I think she would be glad to see you?

Spyro hesitated a moment before answering. "It's not that… I keep having these dreams, and in all of them I find Cynder dead on the ground, but then she comes back and…" Zach could see tears glistening at the edges of Spyro eyes, " …and she keeps asking me why… why I killed her. I just don't understand it, I would never do anything like that, especially not to Cynder."

Zach watched silently as tears dropped from Spyro's face and splashed on the ground. "I'm terrified that the dreams are going to come true."

Spyro confessing his worries felt strange to Zach, he had started pouring out his feelings to Zach without any prompting or pretense. Zach had never known how to comfort anyone and Spyro was the last person he expected to come to him for help. It was like having a weird taste in his mouth.

"Hey relax Spyro, I'm sure you were just upset about possibly losing Cynder, you blamed yourself for what happened and it manifested itself in your dreams." It made sense to Zach, but something still nagged at him, dreams from this world always seemed to have major importance behind them.

"But then why am I still having them? I finally found Cynder and she's ok, but they keep coming back."

"I'm sure your still a little worked up about it, you hardly had any time to talk to her afterwards. Just give it a little more time and I'm sure they will go away."

"Hmm…. Maybe you're right… hey Zach… can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Sure." Zach was beginning to become concerned. He really didn't know Spyro at all, and the trust he was getting was far past that of what he expected.

"Don't tell Cynder about this."

Zach laughed slightly, "My lips are sealed… what? you don't want her to know you're worried about her?" Zach prodded Spyro with one of his wingtips.

"No… it's just that I don't want her to worry about it, she already has her own problems…" Spyro looked of towards Cynder's room again, sadness in his voice.

"One thing though…"

"And what is that?"

"If your dreams ever put anyone in danger, don't expect me to keep them a secret."

Spyro looked at Zach for a second before answering, "fair enough."

"Good… now get out of here, you prancing around like that is going to drive me crazy." Zach rolled over on his cushion, turning his back to Spyro and attempting to drift back to sleep.

Spyro stopped again, turning back to Zach. "What about Chara, isn't she in that room?"

"No, I'm surprised you didn't see her walking out, she was still a little spooked and moved to Makias' room a few hours ago."

"Have you slept at all?"

"Yes, but I'm a light sleeper so I wake up every time someone comes out of their room, speaking of which, go away so I can get back to sleep."

Spyro left Zach and walked down the halls counting the doors as he went. Anticipation boiled inside him as he neared the room. Once he reached the third door he turned and sat on his haunches in front of the curtain. Spyro raised his hand to knock on the doorframe, but stopped. He and Cynder hadn't had much time to talk to each other since they reunited back at the market and no time by themselves. The prospect of talking to Cynder alone again brought shivers up his spine. Would he bring it up again… would Cynder remember those nights ago in the gardens… and most importantly, could he bring himself to say it. He had been on the brink those nights ago when Zach interfered, but so many things had happened since then. Spyro had seen changes in himself that concerned him. Wasn't he the reason that Cynder had suffered in the first place, if had simply followed Zach would anything have happened? And what about Cynder? People seemed to know that they could use her to get to him, he was putting her in danger simply by being around her.

"Just go in already!" Spyro head Zach's harsh whisper come from across the room. Zach lay on his bed watching Spyro as he sat before the door, motioning with one hand for Spyro to go in.

Spyro smirked at Zach before slowly entering the room, parting the curtain that served as a door. It was probably better that he didn't wake the rest of the house anyway.

Spyro looked around slowly as he entered the room. The absence of light and lack of a window obscured many of the details, but Spyro could make out the generalities of the room. A few shelves lined the walls of the room with different books and scrolls stacked neatly on them, and various cushions spread across the floor in different piles for bedding. Spyro noticed a considerably darker patch on one of the piles and quietly made his way over. Cynder lay quietly on the pile in the center of the room, she was curled up into a ball with her tail wrapped around her legs to her head and he wings splayed out behind her. Spyro couldn't help but stare as he stood quietly over her, she was beautiful even in her sleep. He longed to talk to her, but she was fast asleep, it was probably better to let her rest. After all, talking to her right now wasn't important.

Spyro turned and walked back towards the door, slightly frustrated with himself for having such a stupid idea. According to what little Zach had told him, she had immediacy gone after him once the guardians were asleep and had exhausted herself flying, she needed her sleep now more than ever. Spyro walked back to the curtain and silently parted them with his wing tips; he could wait till she woke up to talk to her.

"Spyro?"

Spyro turned around to see Cynder lift her head up slightly from the bed. "I'm sorry Cynder I shouldn't have woken you, I'll let you get some sleep, see you in the morning…" Spyro continued out the door but was stopped again.  
" No Spyro that's ok… come here for a minute."

Spyro walked back over to her bed and set himself down on the ground just outside the ring of cushions. "What is it Cynder"

"What were you doing in here so early in the morning?" Her voice was soft and weak from her exhaustion, but Spyro could hear her plainly in the otherwise silent room.

"Err… I was just wandering around, I didn't mean to wake you up…"

"Oh don't give me that, don't think that I don't know when you're lying. You have always been a terrible liar" Spyro could hear her laugh softly as her words echoed in his head.

"Ok so I was wondering how you were doing. We didn't talk much after we met in the city and I wanted to make sure that you were ok." Spyro caught the glint of Cynder's eyes as she turned to face him, keeping her face level with his.

"You're getting closer, but I still don't think that is exactly why you came in here."

"I just wanted to make sure you were safe with all that's been going on, there hasn't been a night where I haven't worried about you… and I had some thoughts that I couldn't get out of my head."

Cynder smiled to herself as she answered. "That's more like it. You care to share some of your thoughts."

"Most of them are about Zach. I mean, where did he come from, whose side is he on anyway, and can we trust him at all with what he just pulled?"

"Hmm… I don't know Spyro, but the trust has to start somewhere. He did risk his life for me after you left you know."

"Yeah… but I mean, what if he is just faking it? What if he still wants to hurt us?"

"This coming from you Spyro? I'm not sure you're ok anymore, you're usually the trusting one."

"It's just that I don't want anything to happen to people I care about." Cynder figured he was talking about the guardians, but Spyro was talking about someone in particular.

They both sat in silence for a moment, listening to the sound of each other's breathing. Spyro could hear Cynder's breathing become more rhythmic and natural as she drifted back to sleep, he had probably kept her up long enough anyway.

Spyro stood up, turning away from Cynder and back towards the door.

"You need your sleep Cynder, do you need anything before I go?"

"I'm kind of cold…" Cynder shifted on her bed.

"Here, I'll get you and extra blanket…"

"No Spyro…" Spyro couldn't catch the disappointment in her voice, "will you lay with me for a while?"

Spyro hesitated a moment before walking on to her bed and lying down, curling himself around her as he did so. He could fell her warm scales as she brushed up again his body, purring softly. "You are not cold…"

"So?"

Spyro's breaths were short and shallow as Cynder pushed herself up against his chest. He had been close to her before, but nothing like this. Spyro tried not to move the rest of his body as he put his head down along the outside of the bed.

"That's better…" Cynder let out a contented sigh as she rolled her shoulders and settled down against Spyro.

"Hmm…"

"What is it this time Spyro?" Cynder could tell there was still something bothering him.

"Why us Cynder? Why are we always the ones who have to pay the price."

"Stop thinking so hard Spyro, you worry too much. Everything should calm down now. Now get some sleep." Cynder raised her head and nuzzled the bottom of Spyro's chin. Spyro felt the blood rush to his face and was left unable to answer her.

"Goodnight Spyro."

"Goodnight Cynder."

Spyro fell fast asleep, but Cynder lay awake long after he had gone to sleep. She could feel the subtle pressure of his claws up against her back, changing with the rhythm of his steady breathing and her own. Cynder relished in the feeling, being so close to him, it felt so… good… Cynder arched her back slightly, pushing more of her back into his steady embrace, Spyro twitched in his sleep before turning and draping one of his wings over her.

Cynder smiled to herself. Everything was how it should be. Spyro had come back to them, they were both all right, and once things settled back down with the guardians, they would be back to their semi-normal lives. No more crazy adventures, no more running around the world chasing after people, and no more life threatening situations. Cynder curled back onto her self under the protective canopy of Spyro's embrace, she could finally rest in comfort.

Zach waited until he was sure that Spyro was going to stay in Cynder room before getting up off of his bed. He would probably cause some problems by leaving them, but it would cause more harm than good if he stayed. He had put them through far too much to think about them helping him. He could probably find help getting home somewhere else anyway. Zach walked quietly out the front door and into the cool night air. It was almost dawn and Zach could see the first specks of light coming over the horizon. He wasn't sure where he would go, but he would probably have to get away from the city for a while. It was too crowded for his taste and after what had happened earlier, it was probably better if he left for a while. Zach spread his wings but immediately realized that he wouldn't be able to fly, he had gotten little sleep and the energy he had recovered must have gone straight to healing the wound on his chest. Zach started the long walk that would eventually take him to the wall surrounding the city, his chest still caused him some discomfort but it was bearable. He just needed some time to think he needed some time alone.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Dreams

Despite his utter lack of sleep, Spyro woke from his slumber early the next morning. But it wasn't because he was quite ready to wake up. Instead a constant high pitched whine buzzed around his head. Spyro shook his head and the buzzing seemed to go away, but the second after he settled back down, the buzzing came back. Knowing that he wasn't going to get back to sleep any time soon, Spyro cracked open his eyes.

The room was still dark, with the only light filtering through the curtain over the doorway, but Spyro's eyes quickly adjusted to the light. His wing was draped over Cynder, who had pushed father up against him during the night. Most of her back brushed against his stomach and he had one of his arms draped over her shoulder. Spyro tensed as he realized how close he was to Cynder, gently removing his arm and pulling back his wing so it lay flat against his back. He hadn't ever woken up this close to her before.

Spyro sighed as he rolled onto his back and off of the bed. He immediately came face to face with a small, yellow buzzing object.

"Getting a little close there I see, eh Spyro?"

Spyro rubbed his eyes to clear his vision, the glowing blob become an easily recognizable object. "Sparks!" Spyro hushed his voice as best as he could to keep from waking Cynder "what are you… how did you…"

Sparks gave a slight chuckle, "its not that hard to find you when everyone in the city is talking about what you did last night."

"Oh…" Spyro turned his head to the ground.

"Yep, wherever there is trouble, you are sure to be around somewhere."

"I wish that wasn't the case" Spyro let out a heavy sigh and took a quick glance over towards Cynder, she was still asleep.

"So how have things been between you two" Sparks motioned over towards Cynder, elbowing Spyro in the side.

"I really don't know, we haven't had much time to talk sine we fought Malefore.

"Haven't had much time, it's been two weeks!" Spyro shushed Sparks as his voice rose to a higher level.

"It's not that simple. Some things have happened since then." Spyro's talons unconsciously flexed, tearing into the ground beneath him."

"Things? What kind of things?" Sparks darted closer to Spyro, waving his hand in front of Spyro's face to get him to relax. "What did you do?"

Spyro glared at Sparks, getting him to settle down. "Sparks, she almost died… twice…"

"Oh…" Sparks quieted down and let the conversation drift off. "But she's ok now right, Spyro. I mean come on, what would our lives be without the evil she dragon chasing us around."

Spyro glared at Sparks, but a smirk slowly broke through his grim face. "No, they wouldn't be the same."

A grin slowly spread its way across Spark's face again "Well you two looked awfully comfortable there…" Sparks elbowed Spyro in the side again.

Spyro's face flushed as he stammered for an answer. "I uh… it was… uh… she was cold."

"So you thought you would warm her up with your stomach?" Spyro tried protesting again, but he knew Sparks already had his own notions of what happened. Instead he muttered under his breath. "It was her idea."

"Sure it was buddy."

Spyro quickly looked for a way to change the subject. "How did you get in here anyway Sparks?"

"Oh I just followed the guardians in."

"What? They're here already?" Spyro knew he was going to have to face the guardians eventually, but he figured he would get at least a day before they showed up.

"Yeah they're out there talking to whoever brought you in."

"Great." Spyro crept over and peered out of the small crack between the edge of the curtain and the wall. From where he was standing, he could only get a partial view of what was going on in the room beyond, but he could listen in clearly on the conversation.

"Hey buddy? What's going on out there?" Sparks pressed up close to Spyro's face trying to look out as well.

"I can't tell, there's this annoying bug in my ear that keeps distracting me." Spyro glanced back to see Sparks with a scowl on his face.

"Now come on, I'm never that mean to you." Sparks crossed his arms over his chest and hovered in place.

Spyro just rolled his eyes and looked back out into the room. "Never…"

"Hey!"

"Sparks, you came in with them, why don't you just go back out there and listen to their conversation?" Sparks could be a great companion, but when you wanted something done, he was the last person you wanted around.

"They told me to come in here and wait for you to wake up."

Spyro rolled his eyes again, "I couldn't imagine why."

"Hey if I went out there now, they would know you were awake."

Spyro glanced over his shoulder again; he did have a point. "Alright, just be quiet so I can hear what they are saying."

"… Yes I know, I've already arranged to take care of the damages." Spyro could easily identify Terador's deep voice.

"Well what about the council, they will want to know what happened." Glacier's voice came back through the room

"As far as you need to be concerned, we are the council right now."

A deep sigh resonated through the chamber. "I just don't know. None of this seems right, and this is nowhere near proper procedure."

"I understand your anxiety, but this is a special case. You must understand that."

"Yes, I assumed there was more going on when I saw Spyro here." Spyro flinched at the mention of his name, he was getting to be very popular.

"Good, is everything settled then?"

"Well… one more thing. If I need to, where can I find Spyro? Who takes care of him?"

"That would be us again. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask."

"So you're his legal guardian?"

"In a sense, Cynder's as well"

"Very well, what about Zach?"

"Yeah who's this Zach person they keep talking about." Sparks was buzzing in Spyro's ear again.

"It's complicated Sparks, but I'm sure you would love to meet him, he would remind you of Cynder."

"In the evil dragon kind of a way?" Sparks crossed his arms again.

"Shh!"

"Well I'm sure those two would make a great couple."

Spyro's attention was torn form the conversation outside as his muscles tensed at Spark's last comment. He turned around and snorted a jet of cold air at his stepbrother who put up his hand in defense.

"Hey, I didn't mean it."

"Now be quiet so I can hear their conversation."

"… Well that will cause problems, do you have any idea where he might have gone?" It was Glacier, his voice carried traces of frustration and concern."

"No. We knew very little about him ourselves."

"Not even where he came from?"

"Not even that, he showed up under mysterious circumstances and disappeared under stranger ones."

"So you don't think he's gone home then."

"No it's not likely."

"I just don't like the idea of him wandering about with and injury like he suffered."

Spyro recoiled as he realized what the dragons were talking about. Zach was gone? He must have snuck out during the night after he had talked to him, but why would he have left. Was he still trying to hide something?

Spyro let out an irritated growl as he turned away from the curtain and walked back over to the bed Cynder was lying on. He had heard enough of their conversation.

"Something bothering you Spyro?" Spyro raised his head up to see that Cynder had woken from her slumber as well and had rolled onto her stomach.

Sparks flew over and hovered around his brother's head. "Isn't there always."

"Oh well now I see what the problem is. You're being followed by an oversized lighting bug." Cynder reached up with one of her hands and playfully swatted at Sparks.

"Ahh! She's trying to kill me!" Sparks weaved around Cynder's waving paw and darted behind Spyro's head.

"Shh! You two, you'll let the guardians know were awake." Spyro ducked under Cynder's paw as she swung after Sparks.

"What, the guardians are here?" Cynder stopped messing with Sparks and settled down to face Spyro again.

"Yeah, they're outside talking to Glacier about last night…" Spyro's eyes drooped as the lack of sleep finally caught up with him.

Cynder scooted over on the bed and motion for Spyro to sit beside her. "You look tired… come on and sit down for a minute." Spyro didn't protest and lay back down on the cushions, though not as close to Cynder as last time. "Are the guardians worrying you? I'm sure they will understand."

"No it's not them, I'm actually glad to see them." Spyro set his head down on the floor and closed his eyes.

"Well then what's bothering you?" Cynder reached down with one of her claws and rubbed the back of his neck.

Spyro stretched his neck out and let the strokes of Cynder's claws sooth his tense muscles. "Zach…"

"Hey now, he did a lot for you. I wouldn't go judging him just yet."

"It's not that I want to judge him, he just dose things that I don't understand." Spyro moved his head out from under Cynder's paw and turned back to face her.

"Just because you don't understand them doesn't mean that he doesn't have a good reason. Besides, I'm sure you could talk it out with him."

"That's just the problem Cynder, he left again."

"What? Why would he just leave like that?" A look of worry crossed over Cynder's face as she looked over Spyro towards the curtain to the other room.

"That's what worries me… why would he run if he didn't have something to hide?"

"Maybe he just doesn't want to cause any more trouble, he was more than reluctant to follow me when I went after you."

"Wait, you convinced him to follow you? I thought it would have been the other way around." Spyro shot Cynder a glance to which she turned her head away.

"Yes, I knew that I would need someone to help me along the way and I couldn't ask one of the guardians so I used Zach."

"Hmm…" Spyro put his head back down on the ground and closed his eyes again. He still couldn't understand anything that Zach did.

"Don't worry about it Spyro, there's nothing you can do about it now." Cynder reached down again and put her hand on his back.

"But what if he comes back Cynder? What if he comes back and he tries to get to me again?"

"He will have a lot harder time if he does try to go after you, but I don't know, I think something happened to him to have him act the way he did."

"When I talked to him last night he did say something, though I don't know if I should believe him."

"I never really caught his explanation, but the guardians seemed to trust him enough when he explained himself."

"Before I came in here last night, I talked with Cynder for a while. When we talked, he mentioned something about a red collar, much like the one that bound us together, only different."

"Wait… did you say a red collar?" Cynder perked up, anxiety evident in her voice.

"Yeah." Spyro turned back to Cynder, he could tell something was bothering her.

"I… I saw it before, Spyro he was telling the truth." Cynder fidgeted on the bed, becoming more uncomfortable by the second.

"I believe that he was telling the truth, but the one thing I don't know is if he is completely in control of his actions."

"Spyro, that thing was created by Malefore, you cant believe that Zach would have done those things by himself."

"I don't Cynder. But what if he is still under its control, what if he lapses back, what if the collar didn't break and he's simply playing us?" Spyro shook his head as he looked at the ground.

"Spyro, I know I've told you this before, but you worry too much. We will handle this problem if it ever comes up. But I don't think it ever will. Zach has had better opportunities than now to come after us both." Cynder reached over and brushed against his side with one of her wingtips. "Now relax, you need your rest."

Spyro grinned before poking back at her. "You do too, I heard you nearly exhausted yourself flying here."

"Yeah, well I was just keeping you from doing something stupid…" Cynder's voce took on a more serous tone as she cuffed him in the back of the head.

"I know… and Cynder, I'm glad you did." Spyro looked over and smiled at Cynder.

"Oh its not just me you owe a thank you to, I might not have made it if it were not for Zach." Cynder stared hard back at Spyro, her gaze edging Spyro on.

"I'll thank him when I'm sure he isn't trying to kill me."

Cynder smacked Spyro on the back of his head again. "Spyro, trust has to start somewhere, why not have it start with you?"

"I know, but don't expect me to completely trust him just yet." Spyro let out a heavy sight and rubbed the back of his head

"There, isn't that better?" Cynder chuckled to herself as Spyro rubbed his injuries.

"Sort of…" Spyro let out a big yawn before rolling onto his back. "Maybe we should get some sleep before the guardians wake us back up, they will probably want to leave as soon as they can."

Cynder yawned as well, culling up on a different part of the bed from Spyro, "yeah, that probably a good idea. Goodnight Spyro"

"Err… good morning Cynder." Spyro curled up and tired to drift back to sleep.

"Whatever" Cynder closed her eyes and attempted to drift back to sleep as well.

"Spyro, Cynder, are you two asleep?" It was Cyril, knocking on the door of their room.

Spyro turned and whispered to Cynder, a slight smile on his face. "So much for that idea…"

"If we had been, that certainly would have woken us up." Cynder rolled back onto her stomach.

"Yes Cyril, we're awake." Spyro yelled back into the hallway, rolling off the bed and standing up.

Cyril walked into the room, looking at Cynder laying on the bed and Spyro stretching himself out on the floor. "Good to see that you are both ok, you had us all worried for a while. Terador want to see you outside when you are ready."

"Ok, well be out in a minute." Spyro watched as Cyril turned and left the room, leaving him alone with Cynder and Sparks. "So much for getting anymore sleep."

"I'm sure that we can get some more sleep when we get back to the temple." Cynder stood up from her position on the bed and walked towards the door. "Now lets go, I'm sure they're waiting for us."

Spyro quickly followed Cynder out the door. All of the guardians were present in the room as well as Glacier and Flare. Spyro and Cynder slowly walked to the center of their circle and sat down.

"Ah it's goo to see that you are both alright." Terador was addressing them both, but looked more at Spyro, cocking one of his eyebrows.

"Yeah we're alright", Spyro looked over at Cynder before turning back to Terador and nodding.

"That's good to hear, but unfortunately we don't have that must time to waste. We do have some duties that need to be taken care of back at the temple, so we can't stay for long."

Flare spoke up form behind Spyro and Cynder. "You may have to wait a while, Spyro is still not well enough to fly."

Spyro craned his neck to look back at his wings, they had unwrapped the bandages from his wings last night after his fight with Zach, but his wings were barely holding themselves together. If he tried to fly again, he could permanently damage his wings… if he hadn't already.

"Don't worry we have taken care of that. Come one Spyro, we must leave before you attract too much attention." Terador turned to leave the room.

Glacier spoke up and stopped him before he had moved too far. "Actually, if you don't mind, I would like to hear Spyro's side of the story as to what happened last night. I have heard my children's side of the story, but I would like to hear Spyro's side to be fair."

"I suppose that wouldn't take up too much time. Go ahead Spyro, it's probably a good thing that we all hear what happened from you."

Spyro turned back to Cynder who simply shrugged before nodding for him to continue. Spyro let out a heavy sigh before retelling what had happened last night. "After Chara and Makias left to go into town and Flare went upstairs I snuck out of the house and wandered into town. I wandered through town for a few minutes looking for the gate to the city, after a while I saw Zach and Makias together at the Market. When I saw Zach… I don't know… he was the whole reason that I was in this mess, I just lost it."

"And what happened after that…" Spyro was set off by how calm and collected Glacier was. He shuddered slightly before continuing.

"I don't know, the last thing I remember was seeing Zach, I can't remember anything until Cynder tackled me."

"Hmm… you remember nothing between then?" Glacier looked suspiciously at Spyro.

"No, nothing."

"Terador, can I have a moment?" Glacier and Terador went to talk over in one corner of the room, leaving the others to talk amongst themselves.

Cyril and Volteer carried on their own conversation while Cynder and Spyro sat in the center of the room. Spyro hung his head; "they don't believe me Cynder."

Cynder wrapped one of her wings around Spyro and moved her head closer to his. "Spyro, I know you, and Terador knows you. You would never lie about something like this. I'm sure there is a reason you can't remember."

"But what does it matter if Glacier doesn't believe me?"

"Hey, you don't know that yet. Now listen to what they're going to say, you might be surprised." As the two elder dragons came back from their conversation, Cynder pulled Spyro into a quick embrace before dropping her wing back to her side. Spyro couldn't help but smile at the brief contact.

"Between your story, what Terador has told me, and what my children have told me, I think I have an idea of what happened. Spyro… as strange as your story is… I don't think you purposefully went as far as you did. You may have had the intention of going after Zach, but your extreme actions seemed to be…" Glacier took a glance over at Terador who nodded "…not under your control, and seeing as no one else was seriously injured and the damages have been taken care of, I don't see a reason to follow this any more."

Spyro looked up at Glacier, grateful for the turn of events, he stammered with his words until Cynder elbowed him in the side. "Thank you."

Flare spoke up for her mate "It's the least we could do for you after all that you have done for us." Glacier nodded in agreement.

Cynder stood up and took a step forward, "don't worry about it, were just glad no one else got hurt."

"Hey, speaking of other people, where are Chara and Makias? I wanted to thank them." Spyro looked around the room but couldn't find any trace of the other dragons.

"They had to go to their classes this morning, but I will relay your thanks to them."

"Morning classes?" Spyro asked.

"Yes, they are very serious about their studies, Chara is doing especially well."

"Yes, I heard that she was one of the candidates for the next fire guardian."

Both Glacier and Flare beamed at the mention of their daughter's accomplishments. "Yes, and she is very excited to be. Though it can be hard on her sometimes."  
Spyro turned talk silently to Cynder. "Next fire guardian?"

Cynder simply shrugged and turned back to the guardians.

"Well then, if there is nothing else. Spyro, Cynder, we should go" Terador and the other guardians turned and left the room, followed closely by Spyro and Cynder.

Flare and Glacier followed them out into the street for their final good-byes. Flare walked up to Spyro and took one last look over his damaged wings "Spyro, we may have taken the bandages off your wings, but I don't want you flying on them just yet."

"Don't worry about him, we'll have Volteer carry him back to the temple." Terador motioned over to Volteer behind him. Spyro groaned as Volteer walked over and picked Spyro up in one of his massive paws. This couldn't be any more undignified for him, and it was a long trip back to the temple.

"Having fun yet Spyro?" Cynder laughed slightly at Spyro's position.

"Absolutely." Spyro sighed as he tired to reposition himself in Volteer's hand.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Each of the guardians spread their wings and lifted off, hovering slightly above the ground.

Cynder spread her wings as well, trying to stretch out the stiffness from her previous flight. Cynder attempted to lift off the ground, but Cyril reached down and picked her off the ground as well. "Oh no you don't, we heard what you did and you're in no shape to be flying either."

"Hey Cynder, having fun yet?" Spyro had ended up hanging upside down from Volteer's paw and was laughing at Cynder.

"Ha ha, very funny Spyro." Cynder shot back before tuning away from him and making herself comfortable in Cyril's grip. The last thing that Cynder heard before sleep claimed her was Spyro's laughter over the strong wing beats of the guardians as they lifted off from the city and headed back towards the temple.

Zach cursed silently to himself as he struggled through the underbrush in the forest just outside the city of Warfang. He probably couldn't have picked a worse path to follow and now he was lost somewhere.

"Well I guess I brought this on myself." Zach spoke into the empty air, listening to the sounds of the forest around him. It was actually kind of peaceful, and Zach let the serenity clam his nerves.

Had he made the right decision? Running away like he did? It would cause some trouble for him in the future, but it was better for him that he had some time away from other people. He always was able to think better when he was by himself.

He was lucky the guards at the city gate hadn't questioned him too much. His excuse of wanting to get an early start on his travels had seemed to calm their suspicions about a dragon leaving the city so early, but it still wasn't a walk through the park.

Zach stopped again as his foot was caught by a vine stretching across the forest floor. Growling, he cut the vine away with his talons and unwrapped it from around his foot. He should have gotten more sleep before he left, then maybe he would be flying over this mess of a jungle instead of trudging though it. But there's nothing he could do about that now.

Zach looked around for a place could rest for a moment, but the entire forest floor was covered with different plants and shrubs. He trudged through underbrush further, looking for some place he could rest, if only for a moment. The farther he moved, the more his limbs seemed to weigh him down.

A low branch tripped up Zach again, sending him to the ground and causing him to eat a mouthful of dirt. He pushed himself off the ground and spat out the clods of dirt from his mouth. His head was spinning and his vision was beginning to blur. Zach shook his head and the feeling seemed to go away and strength seamed to return to his legs. Zach kept walking through the forest underbrush, constantly looking for somewhere he could talk and rest.

As he walked, Zach thought about the apes that had controlled him at one point. Shouldn't he be doing something to stop them? No that wasn't his problem. The guardians would probably take care of them. But what if they came after him? He didn't really know how to defend himself, and he was too worn out to do anything.

Zach stumbled again as the terrain became uneven under his feet, his vision blurred again, and his head began to throb. Zach stopped to hold his head, but a sharp pain began to shoot through his skull. Zach staggered a few more steps before collapsing on the ground. Zach struggled on the ground to maintain consciousness. Something wasn't right about this, he knew he was tired, but this wasn't natural. The world seemed to spin around Zach as he convulsed on the ground, darkness flickering across his vision. Eventually his body couldn't take it anymore, and Zach gave in, welcoming the peace of unconsciousness.

"Wake up young dragon, we are nearly home." Spyro stirred in his sleep and awoke to the rhythmic beating of Volteer's wings. Looking down he could see the familiar sight of the silver river snaking its way across the valley below. This meant that they had to be somewhere near the temple. Spyro twisted in Volteer's grip to get a better view of the surroundings. Volteer above him had his neck stretched out for the rigors of flight, staring off in the distance at their destination. Terador was flying slightly above and in front of Volteer, leading the group of dragons through the air. Off to his left, Spyro could see Cyril flying through the air alongside Volteer, carrying Cynder in his massive paw. Cynder dangled limply from his paw, obviously asleep from their long journey. Spyro smiled to him self as he looked at her, she was almost comical.

Spyro turned and yelled at Volteer though the roaring wind. "How far are we from the temple?"

Volteer yelled back without moving his head. "It's nearly right below us now."

Before Spyro had time to answer he felt his stomach force its way up his throat as Volteer took a sudden dive. Volteer dropped like a rock before pulling up sharply to land on the platform outside the temple on three legs. Volteer balanced himself before setting Spyro on his feet. Spyro coughed a few times before tuning and scowling at Volteer.

"Next time, tell me before you're going to do something like that."

Volteer grinned at scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that, I forgot I was carrying you."

Spyro raised an eyebrow. How Volteer could forget he was carrying him five seconds after he had talked to him was unbelievable, but then again, this was Volteer he was talking about.

Spyro turned around to see Terador and Cyril land gently on the platform beside him. Cyril balanced on three feet as well and gently laid Cynder on the platform. From what Spyro could see, she was still asleep.

"Well, you two young dragons seem to still be worn out. Why don't you go get some more sleep, I'm sure your bodies could use the rest even if you don't sleep any more." Terador spoke in his usual deep voice, rattling Spyro's ears.

Spyro looked over at Cynder again, she hadn't moved since Cyril set her down, she was definitely asleep. Cyril bent down again to pick her up and carry her to her room, but Spyro stopped him. "I can get her Cyril, her room isn't far from mine."

Cyril looked to the other guardians who nodded before helping Spyro position Cynder over his back. Spyro then walked carefully down the hallway, taking great pains not to jostle Cynder as he moved.

Each of the guardians watched the pair from their own perspective as they disappeared around the first corner. Once again, Terador was the first to speak.

"I do suppose that we out to follow them."

"Yes, we don't want them getting any ideas now do we. And its best to make sure that Spyro is actually in his room this time." Volteer turned and followed Terador and Cyril who had started down the hallway.

"It's not so much Spyro running away what I'm worried about. He has more than enough reason to stay now." Terador led the trio into the large reflecting pool room.

"Then what are you worried about Terador?" Cyril looked at Terador who only rolled his eyes.

"Their safety for one. It seems that some other forces are going after them, and I want to do everything possible to keep them safe. That among… other things…" Terador coughed as he started down the hallway towards Cynder's room. "I'll take care of things with them, you two wait here for me to come back. We have some other things to discuss."

Spyro set Cynder down on her bed as gently as he could, rolling onto his side so she could slide off of his back. After Cynder was safely on her bed, Spyro stood up and turned around. From what he could tell, she had slept during their travel back to the temple and all the way back to her room. It was amazing she had woken up for the short time he had talked to her this morning. Spyro let out a heavy sigh as he looked down at Cynder. Once they had rested, he was going to tell her. It was starting to eat him alive and after recent events, time seemed more critical. If only she was awake now.

Spyro tuned and started walking back out of Cynder's room, but stopped. Did he have to sleep in a separate room from her again? There was plenty of room, and they had spent plenty of time together on their travels. Besides, Spyro had his best nights sleep in weeks last night. Sure it was a little awkward, but being in the same room as her seemed to put his mind at ease.

Spyro turned and took a step back into Cynder's room, it couldn't really hurt anything could it?

"Oh no you don't Spyro, back to your own room now." Terador had come into the room and was standing in the doorway.

Spyro simply nodded and followed Terador out of the room. That solved that problem. Terador led him back down the hallways to his own room, where he stood outside while Spyro got himself situated. As Spyro rearranged himself on his own bed, something kept nagging at the back of his mind, besides the fact that there were other dragons around his age that he didn't know existed until recently, something he heard while leaving Warfang bothered him.

"Terador, what was that I heard earlier about a new fire guardian?"

Terador let out a heavy sigh before starting. "I meant to tell you earlier, but with everything that's been going on it has been difficult. With the loss of Ignitus, there is an absence in the guardian ranks. While we can function solely as a trio, it is best to have at least four guardians. This prevents a single person or a pair from gaining too much power. If we are split on an issue, it takes debate and deliberation to come to an agreement instead of a majority rule. And while there is no dire need for a new guardian, recent events have concerned some of us, and we feel now would be the best time to choose a candidate."

"Who all is qualified to be a candidate?" Spyro looked up at Terador with curiosity in his eyes.

"While there are some older dragons that would meet the criteria, we as guardians know that our time will soon come to an end, and we will need a new generation of guardians soon. With this in mind we decided to look at the qualified ones in younger generations. These dragons are not only skilled in their art, but they also possess some accelerated form of maturity, decision making, and leadership."

"Was I a possible candidate?" Spyro was asking more out of curiosity than a desire to be guardian.

"Yes and no. While you do have the skills necessary to become a fire guardian, you also have the ability to become other guardian types as well. Then there is the fact that you are a purple dragon, this almost elevates you over the guardians themselves, but it also means that you need to heed their council well, lest you follow Malefore's path. We felt that it would have been too much of a burden after all that you have done to put you as a position of guardian. However, do no think that you are not important. You have proved yourself time and time again that you know more of how the wold works than some dragons will ever know. And there is one thing about you that I hope that you never lose. Something that makes me proud to have watch you grow."

"And what is that Terador." Spyro looked up at Terador curiosity in his eyes.

"Your heart Spyro. You will always do what is right, even if it means sacrificing yourself. That kind of sacrifice is one of the purest things to behold, don't ever let that change."

"I won't Terador."

"Good… and Spyro, you're not upset about the next fire guardian are you?"

"No, I understand it needs to be done, and I wouldn't have wanted to be the next guardian anyway. I don't think I could have ever matched up to Ignitus…"

"Don't sell yourself short Spyro, he would be very proud of you." Spyro became more solemn at the mention of Ignitus and Teardor knew it was still a sore subject for him. "Spyro, you know that Ignitus gave his life because he cared for you. It is ok that you feel like this over loosing him, but what Ignitus did was his own decision."

"But what if had stopped the destroyer earlier? What if he hadn't…" Terador flared out his wings to stop Spyro's rambling.

"Spyro, we cannot change what has happened, all that we can do is work on the present. And I know that Ignitus was proud of his decision. If there was any way that he was going to go down, it would be protecting you."

"Alright." Spyro didn't seem completely satisfied, but he had returned to a much calmer demeanor. "Thank you Terador."

"Your welcome. Now go and get some rest, you and Cynder both need to recover."

Spyro nodded his head before closing his eyes. Terador turned and walked back towards the reflecting room with the other guardians. Things still were not back to normal, but they were on their way.

Zach stood inside what appeared to be a enormous library. Different books of all shapes and sizes lined the walls of the circular room, with an oversized hourglass dominating the center of the chamber.

"Where am I?" Zach posed the question to the empty air, but was surprised when a gentle laughter echoed around the room.

"That seems to be everyone's first question." Zach turned to see a pale gray and white dragon calmly walk into the room. "Welcome to my humble home, if you could call it that."

Zach stared hard at the strange dragon walking in the room. His nerves were on edge because of finding himself in unfamiliar surroundings, but something about the dragon seemed familiar to him, something that he should remember. As Zach stared at the dragon, he sat there patiently, waiting as the smaller dragon in front of him studied him. Zach tried to sort though his mind to figure out why the dragon seemed so familiar, very few things in this world seemed familiar to him and he knew something about this dragon was important.

The flickering torchlight made it difficult to pay attention to the dragon as small shards of glass or crystal refracted the light and sent different colors dancing across the walls off the room. Zach flinched as a streak of blue crossed the other dragon's face, distracting him again. Zach refocused but the light continued to cause problems as a green streak flashed across his face.

Zach pulled his gaze away and rubbed his eyes to help focus his vision. "No not green… not blue…" he thought to himself, "it should be…" something clicked in Zach's mind and his jaw went slack as a red beam passed across the older dragon's face.

"…Red… Ignitus!"

"It's good to see that some people know who I am, but tell me young dragon, who are you?"

Zach cringed slightly, he hadn't meant to say that aloud. "I'm sorry, I'm Zach."

"Ah… Zach… it is good to finally meet you. You know, you have been causing quite a disturbance throughout the realms"

Zach raised his eyebrows, "I guess I'm that popular then."

"Yes you are, and I wanted to see for myself who we were dealing with. You are quite a unique dragon" Ignitus turned as raised his hand, a book from a nearby table then immediately came to his open palm. "Your book, unlike most dragons, tells very little about you. No name, no where you were born, and nothing about your life at all up until the last two weeks, and even then the information is scarce."

"Err… my book?" Zach arched his neck in an attempt to look at the book Ignitus was holding.

"Yes, your book…" Ignitus turned it so Zach could get a better look at it "it tells me things about a dragon's life, and things that might be in their future."

"Wow…" Zach looked at book, but all the pages looked blank to him. "Is they're anything written in it."

Ignitus sighed and closed the book, setting it on a table beside him. "That's the thing, you are a very strange dragon. Normally if I can open a book, I can read it. However there are a few special occasions where the contents of a book are lost to me. I can only guess that means that there is some special purpose for them."

Zach shot Ignitus a quizzical glance. "Special purpose you have to be kidding me."

"Perhaps, perhaps not, but for some reason, your pages tell me very little. And it also seems that you have that affect on people you came in contact with.

"Well trust me, as soon as I can get home, I'll be out of everyone's way."

Zach watched as Ignitus' mouth moved, but no words came out of his mouth. "What was that Ignitus?"

"Hmm… we seem to be running out of time, we must talk about some other things quickly."

"Why what's going on?"

"It's simply that I can't maintain a connection with someone like you for a great deal of time. You don't quite have the power, but on to business. Zach, I need you to come find me."

"Umm… ok… I found you?" Zach was beginning to question Ignitus' sanity, though maybe he should be questioning his own.

Ignitus chuckled slightly but continued his explanation. "This is simply a connection with your mind of sorts, a dream basically, I need you to physically come and find me. Besides, I need some way to determine if you are trustworthy or not, so there are some safeguards in place."

"Ok… so where are you?" Zach didn't quite understand why Ignitus made this seem all that difficult.

"It's not that simple, see you can't come find me."

Zach just looked at Ignitus.

"There are only a few people that can actually cross the barrier into this section of the realm."

"So you're saying that I have to find one of these people." Yes it was diffinately his sanity that should be in question.

"You catch on very quickly."

"Would Spyro happen to be one of these people?"

"You've seen him?" Ignitus became visibly excited at the mention of Spyro's name. "he's alive?"

"You could say that, we've been chasing each other around for a few days."

"Good then you should be able to convince him to help you. And he should be able to decide if you are trustworthy."

"About that… we aren't exactly on the best terms."

"How so?"

"To make a long story short, he thinks I tried to kill Cynder."

"And did you?" Ignitus would have chuckled at Spyro's protectiveness over Cynder had her life not been in danger.

"Sort of…"

Ignitus took a long moment to look at Zach, "sort of… you and I have a lot to talk about if we meet."

"Everyone seems to say that."

"Yes, you are indeed a strange dragon." Ignitus' voice cracked and faded away again and the whole scene seemed to dim. "I regret to say that our brief meeting must come to an end." Ignitus turned and walked towards the doorway he had entered the room from.

"Wait! Can you tell me anything about my powers, I don't understand anything about them." Zach ran after Ignitus as he started to leave the room.

"I could tell you all about your powers, but it would be more beneficial if you figure things out for yourself. However, there is one thing about your powers I will tell you and it is very important that you pay attention and take this lesson to heart." Ignitus closed his eyes and stood still for a moment, as he did the room seemed to brighten for Zach. "We do not have much time Zach"

Zach nodded his head in response.

"Zach, you know that you have a power that can heal wounds and revive the body, this works on the basic principle of other elemental power in that you draw on the elemental power that you store in your body, and turn in into a controlled form."

"Ok that makes sense."

"However, your power brings up a special case. Your power, in short, turns elemental energy into physical energy, such as to heal the body or relax the muscles, and I could go on."

"Ok."

"It also seems to work in reverse. You can take physical energy and turn it into elemental energy."

"Hmm… that's kind of neat, but why is that a bad thing?"

"Because Zach, that physical energy can only come from one source, and that is you. When you exert yourself too much or if you feel the dire need, your body will start shutting down and turning the physical energy of your body necessary to live, into elemental energy that you can expend. And if you were to exert yourself too much, Zach, You could kill yourself."

Zach didn't have a reply to what Ignitus had just told him. It would explain what happened to him when he had helped Cynder.

"Zach, as you grow stronger, your ability to sustain your powers will increase and the threat of you overexerting yourself will diminish. But you must never forget what I have just told you. It will only take one instance of you overexerting yourself and you may injure yourself to the point that you can never recover."

"That makes me feel so much better."

"Relax Zach, it would take an exertion far beyond what you normally use to push you to that point."

"That's good to hear." Zach looked up at Ignitus. Even if he hadn't learned much, he at least had a grip on something he could do. Although now he had countless other questions and journeys he would have to take to get them answered, but maybe he should just start by doing what he was told. "But why are you doing this, you have no reason to trust me. In fact after what I've told you, you should be sending me in the opposite direction."

"Young dragon, there are some things in this world that do not require an explanation. You may have done nothing to gain my trust in you, but you have done nothing to destroy it. Besides, I know I can trust Spyro and if he trusts you enough to bring you to me, then there won't be a problem."

Zach chuckled to himself. "I suppose that makes sense, but that also means it might be a while before you see me face to face."

Ignitus' mouth seemed to move, but once again Zach could hear anything coming out of his mouth.

"What was that Ignitus?"

"I'm sorry, I can't maintain a connection with you any longer. And send my regards to Spyro, I couldn't be prouder of him." Ignitus turned and walked out of the room through the same door he had entered through.

"Ignitus wait…" Zach ran after Ignitus, but stopped when he realized that he wouldn't be coming back, "how do I get out of here."

As if to answer his question, the room around him started to darken and dissolve into tiny pricks of light. The pricks of light slowly got bigger, connecting into each other before completely filling Zach field of vision. As the light started to fade, Zach found himself standing in a forest somewhere. Looking around, he saw himself surrounded by trees and underbrush, in other words, he still had no idea where he was.

Looking further into the forest, Zach was alarmed to see a dragon passed out in the underbrush. Trying to race over to the fallen dragon, Zach found his limbs were still sluggish. After what seemed like ages, Zach finally made his way over to the dragon, only to have his jaw go slack.

Lying tangled in the underbrush, was himself.

"Because this isn't weird or anything…" Zach looked down at himself… he looked as if he was in a peaceful sleep and other than the large scar across his chest looked like any other dragon.

Zach reached out with one of his talons, maybe he needed to wake himself up. As soon as Zach nudged himself with his talon, he was immediately overcome by vertigo. Zach's world completely tuned on end, spinning uncontrollably around him. And once again, Zach fell back into unconsciousness.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Suspicion

Zach raised his head to look at the dragon temple floating of in the distance. It had taken him all day half walking half flying through forests and over mountains to get here. The sun created a glare off the polished rock, reflecting back into Zach's face and making the temple seem as if it were made out of polished marble. Zach squinted his eyes to get a better look at what direction he should be going before walking in that general direction. He let out a heavy sigh as he spread his wings out behind him, not for flight, but more to stretch them out. His had recovered enough to make a few short flights, but even those lefts him drained and out of breath. It was probably for the better though, he shouldn't be pushing himself while his chest healed completely. He would need to be able to fly the short distance to the temple anyway.

But even with the short bursts of flying, the trip back had still been extremely difficult. It was astonishing that he had made it this far in such a short period of time. It seemed like it had taken all day for them to fly to Warfang, yet he had made it back in what seemed to be a fraction of that time. Although, just because he had made it to the temple sooner, didn't mean that his journey had been any easier. After he had woken up in the forest, drenched in sweat, it took him almost an hour to stumble out of the forest. Even then he found himself miles from the mountains as well as the city and that added to the miles of plains he would have to cover on the other side of the mountains had meant a long and difficult walk. Thankfully, the small amount of sleep he got when he was unconscious had healed his wings enough so he could make very short flights. These were mainly used to get over otherwise unpassable terrain like gorges and small cliffs. But the short flights seemed to add up over time as strength returned to his wings and he was able to make longer flights. It all ended up with him reaching what he was calling the silver river valley a few hours before sundown. The rest of those hours left him trudging though underbrush and jungle again, much like his first journey to the temple, and here he though that he was never going to have to make a trip like that again.

Hr had caught sight of the temple a few minutes ago, but Zach wasn't sure what his step should be. He didn't want to just arrive like he had last time, it might cause more harm than good, but he couldn't just sit out and wait for someone to come by either. He needed some way to get their attention, and he really couldn't think of a good way to do it. So for now, he simply continued on his way closer to the temple, hopefully he could come up with something to do before he actually got there.

Why was he doing this anyway? All because some of vision he had? Or was it only some deranged dream brought about by exhaustion? Either way, he was already here, so he might as well ask for help anyway. There was something about that dream though, something made it seem all to real, and actually, meeting Ignitus might answer some of his questions, some of his most important ones. But that was only if everything worked out in his favor, and that wasn't very likely.

Zach let out another heavy sigh as he trudged through the forest. He was a dragon walking through some strange forest towards a floating temple to ask help from a dragon that didn't really trust him based on some dream he had… this world was messed up.

Spyro woke up in a different place yet again. The pale brown walls created a warm atmosphere around him as light filtered through a window in near horizontal beams, casting long shadows across the opposite wall. Spyro stretched out on his bed and rolled onto his back, he wasn't used to waking up in familiar places… how ironic was that… and actually waking up somewhere he remembered was a feeling he had long forgotten. He finally felt well rested but he had no idea how long he had been asleep.

Spyro looked to the shadows cast on the wall. The long shadows cast on the wall meant the sun was very low in the sky, close to sunset. He must have been asleep for hours.

Spyro rolled back onto his stomach and stood up, stretching out his back and wings as he did so. There was no way he would be getting any more sleep soon, so it wouldn't hurt for him to take a walk around the temple. Maybe he could find Cynder or one of the guardians to talk to for a while… well maybe he could find Cynder.

Spyro left his room, heading towards Cynder's room. Hopefully she was awake by now. As he walked through the halls, Spyro noticed how much smaller everything seemed to him, it had been three years since he had last spent time here where he wasn't in a rush to do something. Places that he used to be able to squeeze into now could only fit his tail, and doorways he once ran through he now had to pull in his wings for to keep them from scraping against the wall. Everything seemed so foreign to him, everything that he had once looked at as commonplace now seemed different, awkward. He wondered if anything he ever did would seem normal.

As he strolled through the temple, Spyro found himself wandering into the central chamber, where Volteer and Terador were talking. As he entered the room, both elder dragons stopped their conversation and acknowledged him, though it took Volteer a but longer to do so.

"Good evening Spyro, are you well rested?"

"Yes, thank you Terador." Spyro nodded in his general direction

"What brings you out and about?" Volteer asked from the other side of the room

"I'm just out stretching my legs, I can only be stuck in that room for so long you know." Well it was the half-truth.

"Ah, well carry on then." Volteer motioned with one of his talons and Spyro continued down a different hallway towards Cynder's room. As he left Volteer and Terador shared a quick sideways glance at Spyro before resuming their conversation.

Spyro waited until he was out of sight from the guardians before quickening his pace towards Cynder's room. There were a few things he needed to talk to her about.

Spyro quickly covered the remaining distance to Cynder's room, thankful that neither of the guardians had decided to follow him. Stopping outside her door, Spyro felt the same anxiety of the night before rise up as he stared at her door. The same thoughts kept racing through his head. Would she even want to talk to him? Sure they had shared some friendly words last night, but now that everything had time to settle in, would Cynder ever forgive him for what he had done. And even if she had, he was constantly putting her in danger. Everyone seemed to know that the best way to get to him was to go after someone close to him, and that person always seemed to be Cynder. What gave him the right to put her in danger, just for his own need for companionship?

But there were other thoughts as well, thoughts that Spyro clung to with every hope that they just might be true. Thoughts that, if he were right, would make all the difference. What if Cynder really did like him? And not just like him, what if she…

Spyro felt his heart flutter as he let his mind relish in the possibilities. Even if there was only a tiny speck of hope, he would hold onto it. But that is why her was here, he needed to sort things out, and the only way he could do that was by talking to Cynder.

Spyro paced nervously outside Cynder's room, his talons making sharp clacking sounds as they scraped against the stone floor beneath him. This wasn't just a stop by Cynder's room to say hello, if he actually went through with it, he would have to tell her…

A shiver ran up his spine as Spyro contemplated exactly what he would tell her. The thoughts racing through his mind just wouldn't seem to form any actual ideas, instead they crashed against each other, leaving him dazed and confused. Spyro shook his head to try and focus his thoughts as he built up the courage to knock on the doorframe.

Spyro lifted one of his shaky hands to rake it across the frame, quietly at first, but ending loud enough that she should be able to hear him. Spyro sat down on his haunches waiting patiently for a reply, but he could hear no sound or movement from inside the room. One minute passed then two as Spyro sat outside her door waiting for some kind of an answer. Maybe she didn't want to talk to him. He could barely stand himself at the moment, so why would Cynder want anything to do with him.

Spyro knocked on the door again, this time more forcefully, and waited for a reply. But yet another minute passed and he was left siting outside alone. Spyro let his head droop as all the possibilities ran through his head. Yet his heart held on to the last hope he still had. She was probably still asleep in her room; after all he had only woken up minutes ago.

"Cynder, if you're awake, I'm coming in…" Spyro spoke softly through the curtain before standing back and parting it with one of his wings. Not hearing a rebuke for opening the door, Spyro stuck his head in only to see that Cynder was not in her room at all.

Spyro became panicked as he looked around the room to find no sign of Cynder, but as his initial panic subsided, his rational mind began to take over again. She had simply woken up earlier than he had and was probably walking around the temple somewhere as well. Spyro scolded himself for jumping to such irrational conclusions and almost laughed at his situation. He had just spent minutes as a nervous wreck waiting outside a room with no one inside it to hear him.

Spyro finally did chuckle to himself. He still needed more rest, a lot more rest. He could feel the fatigue working its way back into his body, and the absurd ideas he was getting troubled him. If he didn't use his head, he was bound to do something really stupid.

Before he left, Spyro looked around the interior of Cynder's room. Each of the shelves lining the room had books and scrolls stacked neatly inside them. Not a book seemed out of place. Each item in the room seemed to have its proper place, even her bed was organized in a certain fashion. Spyro looked around in silent wonder, his room wasn't even close to this tidy. It was a wonder that he hadn't noticed this about her room before, but he hadn't really spent any time in here before.

Spyro strolled over to one of the shelves filled with books. He was amazed at the sheer number of books on the shelves. Cynder had managed to obtain quite a collection in the short amount of time she had spent at the temple. What all did she read in all the time she was here? Spyro ran his finger down the spines of different books and scrolls reading what titles he could. Most seemed to be about history, different study materials, books dedicated to different techniques, and other odds and ends. But as Spyro looked down the rows of books, they changed from information and study books, to adventure stories and romance. Spyro became uneasy and glanced over his shoulder. He probably shouldn't be looking around in Cynder's room without her permission, but his curiosity perked when he saw a book different than the rest at the end of the shelf. Walking over, Spyro pulled the book off the shelf and examined the cover. It had no title or markings on the cover, it was simply a plain leather bound book.

Curious, Spyro opened the cover of the book, starting to read the first page. Spyro noted there was a date at the top of the page and the pages were covered with hand written scrawl. As he read the first few words, Spyro began to realize that it wasn't a normal book or scroll that he held in his hands, but it was a journal, and seeing that he was in Cynder's room, that meant that it was Cynder's journal.

Spyro quickly closed the book before slamming it back into its original position on the shelf, glancing over his shoulder as he did so. Relieved to see that no one had seen what he had been doing, Spyro quickly moved out of the room, pushing the curtain closed as he left.

His heart beating quickly in his chest, Spyro shook his head. He was pretty sure what he did classified itself as something really stupid. Sure he hadn't actually read anything, but if Cynder found out, which she probably would, things would not end well for him. Spyro took in a deep breath to calm himself, it shouldn't be that big of a deal, right?

Spyro steadied himself and walked off down the hallway, he still wanted to find Cynder. She had to be somewhere in the temple. Walking back through the temple, Spyro passed by Volteer and Terador again as he passed though the central chamber. Once again they stopped their conversation to watch him as he passed through, although this time they didn't say anything to him. Spyro brushed off their stares and walked back towards his own room, they seemed intent on something and he really didn't want to know what they were talking about.

Walking back the same way he came in earlier, Spyro ended up back in front of his own room. Checking back inside to make sure Cynder hadn't snuck in while he was away, he noticed how cluttered his room was compared to hers, books lay scattered around the floor along with papers, bedding and other odds and ends. But in all the clutter, Spyro didn't see any trace of Cynder.

"Ugh... where is she?" Spyro turned and headed back towards the central chamber yet again, having to pass through it to get to almost every part of the temple. As he stepped into the chamber for the third time, Volteer and Terador stopped their conversation to stare at him; this time worried looks on their faces.

"Spyro are you ok? You seem to be restless." Terador shifted his position so he was facing Spyro.

"I'm fine Terador." Spyro stopped himself in the center of the room to address the guardians.

"Well is there anything we can help you with?" Volteer was addressing Spyro though he was facing the opposite direction, obviously distracted by something.

"Actually…" Spyro was a little hesitant to actually tell them what he was doing. "Do you know where Cynder is?"

Terador and Volteer turned to each other, a smirk on both of their faces. "I believe that she went out to the balcony not that long ago, but why do you ask Spyro?"

"I just wanted to talk with her…" Spyro let his voice trail off as he started to walk out towards the balcony.

"Alright then…" Terador watched Spyro walk out of the room, snickering once he was out of earshot before turning back to his conversation with Volteer.

Spyro walked quickly down the hallway, anxious to see Cynder again. However, something stopped him before he went around the corner. Treading carefully, Spyro stuck his head around the corner to see Cynder siting at the edge of the platform. She had her tail wrapped around her and was looking off into the distance towards the setting sun.

Spyro padded up quietly to sit beside Cynder, siting in the cool evening air with her. Her attention seemed to be riveted on something off in the distance, she didn't notice him until he began to talk.

"What are you looking at?" The conversation felt forced to Spyro, usually he felt no trouble in talking to Cynder, but now it felt awkward to him.

Cynder seemed startled by his voice as she turned to focus on him, "Oh Spyro, I didn't see you. What are you doing out here?"

"Same thing you are I suppose, I just wanted to get out." Spyro gave Cynder a smug look, "besides I asked you something first."

Cynder giggled slightly, which caused Spyro to look at her in surprise. "Nothing in particular, I figured I would wait out here and watch the sun set. It something I haven't seen in quite a while."

"Really? Do you mind if I join you then?"

Cynder looked down at how close Spyro was sitting to her. "Sure, but it looks to me like you already have. Besides, you don't need to ask permission." Cynder looked out of the corner of her eye. He was acting strangely, even for him.

"Right…" Spyro looked out into the distance much like Cynder had been earlier, letting out a jet or stem through his nostrils. "It feels good to finally have some time to rest… and to not be running around the country for some reason or another."

"Yeah, it felt good to wake up in a familiar place for once,"

Spyro smiled at having Cynder share the feeling. "Speaking of sleep, I looked for you around the temple, I didn't think you would be up and around yet."

"I can only sleep for so long Spyro."

"Well after what you did, I wouldn't have surprised if you still were." Spyro turned and smiled slyly at Cynder.

"Well after what you pulled I'm surprised you're even moving." Cynder turned angrily and poked him in the chest with one or her talons. "If you ever do anything that stupid again…"

Spyro put his hand on top of Cynder's, slowly pushing it down off his chest. "I'm sorry Cynder, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, well…" Cynder turned herself away from Spyro, pulling her hand out of his grip. "Just don't ever pull something like that again."

"Cynder…" Spyro reached up and placed one of his hands one Cynder's shoulders, but she quickly shrugged it off. "Cynder please…"

"Spyro, I don't think you realize it, but just because you're not saving the world, doesn't mean you aren't important to people. You're still very important to people." Cynder kept her back turned to Spyro, hopefully to disguise the cracking in her voice.

"Cynder, I never meant to…"

"Then maybe you should think before you act next time." Cynder's sharp retort cut Spyro off.

"Cynder…" Spyro reached over with one of his wings and drew Cynder around so she faced him, though she averted her eyes from his own, "You know as well as I do that I never wanted to hurt you or anyone else. I can't change what happened, but I can keep it from happening again." Spyro moved his head so Cynder was forced to look him in the eyes. "Please… please, forgive me?"

Cynder looked at Spyro for a long minute, indecision in her expression. "Well… I suppose." A slight smile formed on Cynder's face as he moved her head closer and bumped against Spyro's nose with her own.

Spyro's eyes widened and he was force to turn away from her to hide the blood rushing to his face, bringing a slight giggle from Cynder. After Spyro had calmed himself down, he turned back around to see Cynder staring at him. "What?"

Cynder only shook her head. "You're funny Spyro."

"What, why?" Spyro watched as Cynder shook her head and turned to look out over the valley again.

"Don't worry about it Spyro…" Cynder trailed off as Spyro came up and sat beside her, both looking off into the distance in silence. Spyro longed for something to say to her, but he couldn't think of anything to say.

As the silence between the two drew out, Spyro shifted uncomfortably, only to feel his tail spade slide across Cynder's. Spyro froze as he felt a shiver run up his spine, forcing himself to remain perfectly still. He glanced over at Cynder to see if she had noticed, but she was still looking off in the distance.

Spyro slowly lifted his tail off of Cynder's, cringing at every sound as the hard plates slid against each other. Spyro set his tail directly behind him, glancing over at Cynder again as he did so. She was still looking off into the distance, but Spyro noticed there was something strange about her eyes.

Spyro tore his gaze away and looked off towards the sunset with Cynder, it had been too long since he had some time alone with her, and for some reason, this seemed like the way to spend it with her. Spyro glanced behind him at his tail, it was still siting close to Cynder's, making him slightly uncomfortable. His head was still bussing from the first time their tails had brushed together, he couldn't quite place what he was feeling. Spyro shivered as another chill ran down his spine.

"Cold Spyro?" Cynder had turned to Spyro, a playful look in her eyes.

"N… n… no, I'm fine Cynder" as much as he tired, Spyro couldn't keep himself from stuttering, why was he acting like such an idiot?

Cynder smiled to herself as she caught the slight rise in Spyro's voice. "Sure you aren't Spyro…" Cynder scooted herself towards Spyro taking up half the space between them. "But I am..." Cynder only received a blank stare from Spyro. "Come on I don't bite… much." Cynder curled back her lips to show her gleaming white fangs.

Spyro pulled his head back and raised an eyebrow towards Cynder, "umm… ok…" Spyro slowly moved over and placed himself next to Cynder, but left a little space between them, still a little unsure of her intentions.

As soon as Spyro had settled down beside her, Cynder moved herself up against him, pushing her head up underneath his wing and setting it on his shoulder while brushing up against him with the rest of her body. Spyro was taken aback by Cynder's sudden movements and sat motionless as she rubbed her head against his shoulder. His wing was still held back behind Cynder from where she had wormed her underneath it and he otherwise tried to keep himself perfectly still. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears, and his feet became slick against the stone underneath him. The closest thing he could relate what he was feeling would be excitement or fear, but it wasn't either of those.

Spyro froze again as Cynder shifted her shoulders and moved her head closer to his. He could feel the warmth of her body radiate through his scales as they sat there together. But even with all of the awkwardness generated by the sudden contact, Spyro couldn't help but feel at peace. There was nowhere else he would rather be than next to Cynder. As Spyro became more comfortable with Cynder against him, he slowly let his wing drape over her, getting a contented murmur from Cynder.

"I see you two are up and active again."

Cynder quickly remover herself from under Spyro's wing and moved a few feet away from him at the same time that Spyro pulled his wing back against him and looked in the opposite direction of Cynder before turning around to face whoever had come up behind them.

"Er… Terador… um…"

"The sunset is beautiful, isn't it." Terador looked Spyro in the eyes, mischief in his expression.

"Yes it is Terador, but that cant be the only thing that brought you out here." Cynder came into the conversation, hopping to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"Actually I was looking for you two." Terador shifted his gaze over to Cynder, who looked away. "Neither of you were in your rooms, so I was looking around the temple to find where you had went. You weren't planing on going anywhere now were you?"

"No Terador, we were just getting some fresh air. Its kind of stuffy in the temple." Spyro walked over and sat next to Cynder again, both of them facing Terador.

"Ah, I see. Well don't stay out here too long, I don't want either of you getting too cold." Terador gave them both a toothy grin before turning and walking back into the temple.

Spyro watched silently as he left, something about Terador's words made him wonder how long he had been behind them before he had said anything.

Cynder let out a heavy sigh before turning and waking back to the edge of the platform, once again looking off towards the slowly setting sun. Spyro hung back a moment, looking at Cynder silhouetted against the orange tinted sun behind her. He black scales contrasted perfectly against the color of the sun, while her partially splayed wings took on an orange hue. Spyro couldn't think of anything else but the dragoness before him.

After snapping himself out of his trance, Spyro walked up to Cynder and sat down beside her. She was still looking off into the distance, much like she had been earlier, though something about her had changed. "Lost in thought?"

"Hmm?" Cynder looked back towards Spyro.

Spyro gave a slight chuckle before repeating himself. "I asked what you were thinking about."

"Oh it's nothing…" Cynder turned her head away from Spyro as he thought he saw a tear in her eye.

"I don't think its nothing Cynder. Do you want to talk about it?" Spyro reached out and gently turned Cynder towards him with one of his wings.

Spyro could see a tear tracing its way down one of her cheeks, but she quickly wiped it away. "Hmm… I guess I'm that easy to read huh."

"I've spent too much time with you to not know when something is bothering you," Spyro nudged Cynder with his shoulder, causing her to sway and laugh slightly, "so do you want to talk about it?"

"No… not right now, maybe some other time." Her smile faded as the solemn tone returned to her voice. Spyro couldn't help but share her pain, he had a good idea of what she was thinking about, but he couldn't think of anything to say. It bothered him, though, that she didn't want to share her problems with him. He understood that some things were private, but she hardly kept anything from him. "Just remember Cynder, I'm always here if you need someone to talk to."

Cynder could only stare back Spyro as the words swam around in her head, it was only a few days ago that she had said the same words to him.

Cynder slowly reached over and set her head on Spyro's shoulder, only to feel his wing wrap around her again. Smiling inwardly, Cynder relished in the feeling, but there was one thing holding her back, what if he was only comforting her as a friend? Sure she would be grateful even then, but she wanted it to be more than that.

Cynder ignored her doubts to relax in the moment at hand, letting her gaze drift off towards the distant setting sun, now starting to drop below the horizon. As she stared, something caught her eye. Thinking it was a spot from the sun, she blinked a few times trying to clear it from her vision, but after she focused again, the speck off in the distance was still there, and it was moving.

"Spyro, do you see that? Over there in the distance?" Cynder pointed with one of her talons, worry in her voice.

Spyro looked down her arm to see a smaller dragon flying circles in the air, not to far from the temple. "You don't think that is…"

"…Zach? I wouldn't doubt it. What do you think he's doing?" Cynder looked of towards the dragon again. "It looks like he's waiting for something."

"Yeah one of us…" pulling his wing back from around Cynder, Spyro tuned back towards the temple and called out for Terador, after a few moments, the earth dragon reappeared out on the platform.

"What is it Spyro." Terador looked down at the two dragons before him.

"Out there, flying circles in the distance, he has been doing it ever since we saw him. We can't quite tell who it is, but we both think it might be Zach."

"Ah I see…" Terador looked off in the direction that Spyro was pointing and quickly found what they were talking about. "And he's been flying circles since you fist saw him?"

"Yes, it's like he's waiting for something."

"Hmm… well I guess I should go see what he wants then. You two stay here." Terador spread his wings to take off, but Spyro stopped him.

"Terador, what if he's waiting to go after someone again?"

"Relax Spyro, I understand your apprehension about Zach, but I do not think we have anything to fear from him at the moment." Terador looked off towards the other dragon again, "besides, we don't even know if that is Zach for sure."

"It still doesn't feel right." Spyro shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, besides, I always have you two if I need you right?"

"Right" Spyro and Cynder replied in unison, though Spyro was less enthusiastic

Terador nodded and finally took off from the temple, heading straight for the dragon in the distance, leaving Spyro and Cynder to watch with anticipation as to what might happen.

Zach's wings burned from the constant exertion he was forcing them through. Fire ran across his chest though the scar that had not completely healed over yet. This was a stupid idea, he could barely see the temple from where he was flying in circles so it was doubtful that they could see him. All this flying was doing was tiring him out.

Zach completed his circle in the air once more, pumping his wings to bring him higher again. He should probably give up while he had enough energy to keep himself awake. There was no sense in him coming so far so fast if he was only going to sleep just outside the temple.

Well, there was no guarantee that he would be sleeping in the temple at all. They would most likely still have their suspicions about him and why he left, so who knows whether they would accept him or send him away, and that was only if they saw him.

Zach glanced back towards the temple, expecting not to see anything, but to his surprise, one of the guardians seemed to be heading towards him. Realizing that he had been seen and his goal was accomplished, Zach's wings began to feel heavy and beat with a slower rhythm. Zach forced himself into a hover, facing the approaching dragon, hopefully signaling his acknowledgement before letting his wings fall and slowly gliding down to the ground below.

Zach tripped and stumbled as he touched down, a combination of his weariness and lack of experience, but kept himself from falling. Zach walked over to the shade of a nearby tree and lay down, his wings burning from their overexertion.

It didn't take long before a large shadow ran across the clearing. Zach looked up through the tress to see Terador hovering just above the clearing. Terador pumped his wings a few times, slowly dropping himself down to the ground, ending up facing away from Zach.

"Terador!" Zach raised one of his wings so Terador would notice, but immediately regretted it as his muscles felt the strain. Thankfully, Terador noticed and walked over towards Zach, stopping a few feet away.

"Zach, we had our suspicions that it might be you out here." Terador looked warily around the clearing. "You are alone aren't you?"

Zach cast a wary look at Terador, "to my knowledge I am."

"Well I guess I will have to take you word on that for now." Terador careful set himself down in the grass of the clearing, staring at Zach. "So Zach, you seem to want something, otherwise you would not have run away and come back, so why don't you start with why you ran out on us again, and we can go from there."

"I just didn't want to cause any more trouble, but it turns out that I can't really seem to get out of your way." Zach almost laughed.

"You're not making any sense Zach. It sounded like you were ready to leave this behind you. What made you come back?"

"Not what, who." Zach glanced back into the forest before looking up at the temple. "I'm here to ask for Spyro's help."

"Then why didn't you just ask for his help, why did you leave?"

"Because I didn't know he could help me, it was only after I left that I talked to Ignitus and he…."

"Wait…" Terador looked closely at Zach, his body unnaturally still as his mouth formed the words. "Did you just say Ignitus? Zach, he's dead. He died weeks ago to save Spyro and Cynder. I don't know who you talked to, but it wasn't Ignitus."

Zach lowered his head; he hadn't known that. "Well, I didn't actually see him…" Zach raised his hand and scratched the back of his head in anxiety, "it was more of a dream…" Zach looked up at Terador again to see him scrutinizing him. "Never mind, it was probably just some fluke, I don't know why I even bothered coming." Zach stood up and started walking away from Terador, there was no reason for him to be here anymore, he could see talking to Terador wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"Zach wait." Zach stopped walking and turned back to face Terador. "Where did you see him."

"I told you it was a dream… I think…" Zach turned and walked back towards the forest. "It doesn't mater anyway, it was just a dream."

Terador launched himself from where he was siting and flew in front of Zach, stopping him in his tracks. "Zach, dreams often mean more than you would think. I want you to tell me where you saw him… in your dream."

"Ehh… it was a library of some kind… but it was strange, Ignitus wasn't read, he was gray."

Terador sat down on his haunches, "I don't believe it, what you just described, it would mean…" Terador trailed off, his jaw going slack before a slight smile appeared on his face. "Ignitus, old friend, I couldn't think of anyone better."

"What, so I'm not going insane?"

"Don't worry about it Zach." Terador settled down in front of Zach again. "Now what did he ask you to do? Why are you here?"

"I'm actually here for Spyro, apparently he is one of the one of the only people who can get to Ignitus, and he wants some kind of face to face meeting with me…" Zach looked at Terador to see if he still believed him, he seemed unscathed. "But he didn't say why, we couldn't talk for very long."

Terador remained silent for a long moment, simply looking at Zach out of the corner of his eye. Zach was beginning to get worried and was twitching with anticipation by the time Terador spoke up again. "You are just about as strange as Spyro… but for some reason I am inclined to believe you."

A small grin broke thought Zach's worried expression, he may not have accomplished much, but at least it was a step in the right direction. That and he wasn't completely insane.

"However, just because I believe you, doesn't mean that Spyro will believe you, and it doesn't mean we will be able to help you right away."

"That's not a big problem. I'm not in any rush, I really don't have anywhere to go."

Terador sat back on his haunches, covering Zach with one of his wings. "Then you must stay with us, I think some of the others might want to keep an eye on you till then, and you do have some other things to explain."

Zach hadn't meant to impose himself, but then again, he really didn't have anywhere to go. Staying at the temple might give him some sense of safety to sleep at night. "I understand. And thank you for the offer, I know your kind of taking a risk."

"There is one thing though, you cannot mention any of this to Spyro or Cynder. They took Ignitus' death hard, and I don't want them jumping at a chance to see him in their worn out state. Its not that I want to keep this from them, but I don't want to take any chances."

"I understand, but you know Spyro might not be too happy to have me around without knowing why I'm there." Zach drew circles in the ground at his feet with one of his talons.

Terador nodded, "yes I know, you should probably follow me back to the temple now tether than later, you showing up by yourself will cause trouble. I can explain it to him the best I can. Are you ready to go?"

Zach slowly stretched out his wings, feeling his muscles cry out at the exertion. He wouldn't be flying for quite a while after this. Terador nodded to him again before launching himself off the ground and flying circles in the air. Zach quickly followed, though it felt like his wings could fall off at any minute. Slowly, Terador banked around towards the temple and led Zach to the next step of his journey.

Spyro became restless as Zach and Terador approached the balcony. He didn't understand Zach at all. First he helps them, then he tries to kill them, then saves their lives, then runs away, and then comes back. He was nervous of what Zach's next actions could be.

"Relax Spyro, if Terador trusts him enough to bring him back to the temple then I'm sure you can trust him not to try anything."

"Its not that I think he's going to try anything, but just the events surrounding him, I just don't know if I can trust what he says or not."

"Well how about we find out what they he wants first, it cant be that bad."

I don't know Cynder, what else would make him come back to the temple after leaving?"

"Here they come, let's find out."

Zach and Terador landed on the platform, Terador placing himself in front of Zach as a reassuring measure. Cynder walked over to greet them. "Hey Zach, glad to see you're ok."

Zach kept his head tilted towards the ground to avoid eye contact. "Hey Cynder, Spyro…"

"You mind telling me why you're here Zach?" Spyro was careful to disguise his voice, but Zach knew there would be hostility between the two.

Zach looked up at Terador who shook his head. "I can't say, not yet."

"And why is that?" Spyro's harsh retort startled the other dragons on the platform.

"Hey talk to him," Zach pointed a finger at Terador, "he's the one that doesn't want me telling you."

"Terador?" Spyro looked up at him with his head tilted to the side; he usually didn't keep things from him.

"Relax Spyro, it is not a dire need so it can wait for you two to recover. I will tell you what he is here for when I am satisfied that you are both well enough to be out again."

Spyro nodded his head but was far from satisfied. He couldn't help but wonder what they were not telling him. If Terador wouldn't tell him because he was worried he would jump after it, that meant it held some importance for him as well. But what could Zach want that he wanted to be a part of? Right now he didn't want to be near Zach; he hadn't exactly gained any trust yet.

"Well I must go and talk to Volteer, if all goes well, Zach will be staying here at the temple for a while until we can reach a decision."

Spyro's claws ground into the stone beneath him at the prospect of having to be around Zach for too long. But then again, it might provide some answers for some of the more difficult questions he had.

The three dragons watched as Terador walked into the temple, leaving them alone on the platform. As soon as he was gone Cynder reached over and smacked Zach in the back of his head.

"Hey, what was that for."

"For being such an idiot! Didn't you learn anything from running around the countryside?"

Zach looked to Spyro for some kind of help, but he only stood there laughing. "Umm… maybe?"

"What did you think was going to happen when you ran off?" Cynder got right up in Zach's face, her wings flaring out behind her.

"I just didn't want to cause any more trouble…"

"Yeah well you can see how well that worked." Cynder reached over and smacked Zach again, this time harder, causing Spyro to tumble into another fit of laughter. Unfortunately for him, this caught Cynder's attention. "And you…" Cynder walked over to look Spyro in the eyes. "Don't think you're getting off easy, you're responsible for this too." Cynder reached around with her tail and whipped it across Spyro's nose.

"Ow" Spyro reached up and rubbed his nose while Zach tried to stifle his laughter.

"I swear between you two idiots, its amazing we're all still alive."

"Now Cynder don't you think you're exaggerating just a little bit?" Zach moved over alongside Spyro and Cynder.

"No, I don't. Look at yourself Zach," Cynder pointed to the scar running across Zach's chest. "I don't think that it's just a small scratch. And look at Spyro, his wings aren't even close to healed yet."

Zach and Spyro both shrank back, realizing how serious she was. "Hey Cynder, relax…" Zach was trying to calm her down, but it was doing quite the opposite.

"I'll relax when I'm sure you two idiots won't do anything else ridiculously stupid. Now come on, the guardians are probably waiting for us." With that, Cynder huffed off into the temple, leaving Zach and Spyro alone on the platform, both in a bit of a stupor.

"Somebody is in the doghouse now." Zach was the first to talk, chuckling a little bit as he walked after Cynder.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Spyro moved after Zach, quickly catching up to him before they were in the temple.

"Don't worry Spyro, I'm sure she still loves you." Zach kept walking only to leave Spyro stunned and stammering behind him.

"I… I… what do you mean?"

"Oh come on Spyro, really? You know exactly what I mean." Zach beckoned Spyro to continue walking with him. "Now get a hold of yourself before we get there, you're stammering like an idiot."

"Hey!" Spyro quickly caught back up to Zach.

"Well you are." Zach said this in a matter of fact tone as they enter the central chamber where Terador, Volteer and Cynder were waiting for them. Terador and Volteer seemed caught up in their own conversation, most likely about what to do with Zach. Cynder stood close to Terador, looking at Zach and Spyro with only a hint of the frustration she had shown earlier. Spyro cleared his throat and caught the attention of everyone in the room.

The guardians looked first to Spyro, then Zach before addressing them. "Well Zach, you always seem to be able to surprise us, and you always seem to have some kind of trouble following you around. You have left us with an interesting dilemma. You see, you have come to us seeking aid, which is our duty to give, however, the nature of you request is… odd… to say the least, and your actions in the past have given us reason to doubt your intentions." Spyro, Cynder, and Zach all shifted uncomfortably as the last few days replayed in their minds. "So in light of your current situation, and due to some circumstances surrounding your request, we have decided that it would be best if you spent some time at the temple while we carefully consider complying with your request."

Zach simply nodded, "I understand and appreciate your help." The conversation left a strange taste in his mouth, it seemed too… diplomatic. He could, however, see the logic behind their decisions. He probably wouldn't have trusted himself that much if he were in their position. At least he was getting somewhere.

"Good. Unfortunately we cannot do anything else for you at the moment because we must wait for Cyril to come back to reach a decision. Until then, you will stay in or around the temple. Seeing as it is getting late again, we will show you to a room. You can rest there until morning, now follow me."

Terador walked down one of the hallways towards Spyro's room, quickly followed by Zach. Cynder followed slowly behind them and Spyro quickly caught up to her.

"That was fast. What were they talking about before we showed up, could you catch what Zach's request was?" Spyro was still tormented about not knowing why Zach had showed up again.

"No, as soon as I walked in, they started being incredibly vague. Whatever he wants, they don't want us to know about it." Cynder was just as curious as Spyro as to why Zach had run away and then suddenly shown up again, but she was less paranoid as to his intentions.

"That just makes me more uneasy." Spyro shook his head as he walked down the hallway.

"why do you distrust him so much?"

"Spyro relax. I know you have reasons to not trust Zach, but you have just as many reasons to trust him. He may not be the first person you would pick to be staying at the temple, but he's definitely not the worst person. Give him a second chance Spyro, I'm sure you won't regret it." Cynder was beginning to become frustrated with Spyro's constant suspicion. It had saved their lives on countless occasions, but she didn't think that Zach was a threat.

"Fine, but if anything happens…" Spyro stared hard back at Cynder.

"I know, I know, you told us so." Cynder rolled her eyes as she continued down the hall, approaching Zach and Terador who had stopped outside one of the rooms. "Besides, I'm sure you and I could take Zach easy if he were to try anything."

"Ah Spyro, Cynder, would you mind making Zach comfortable, I need to go take care of something quickly." Without waiting for a response, Terador left them and walked away, leaving the three younger dragons to themselves.

Zach was the first one to speak up again. "Before this gets out of hand, I just want to say that I want to tell you why I'm here, but I can't. I understand why the guardians don't want me to tell you, and it makes sense, but they're just looking out for you two. Don't worry about it though, I can wait. And as soon as I can tell you what's going on, the sooner you can decide, and the sooner I can get out of your way."

"Wait you said the sooner we could decide. What does you being here have to do with us?"

"Well actually just you Spyro, and I can't tell you, not yet anyway. I want to but…" Zach stopped as Terador cam around the corner, cutting their conversation short.

"Hmm. What are you still doing out here, come on now." Terador walked into the room closely followed by the younger dragons. "Its not much, but it should be adequate, I'm not sure what your used to at home but, this should be fairly close."

Zach winced at the mention of home, yet no one else seemed to notice. Terador went rambling on about different things in the room that Zach could care less about. It had a bed, and that was all that that he really cared about right now. Zach glanced over at Spyro and Cynder who seemed just as uninterested in Terador talking as he was. Both of them gave a slight nod of acknowledgement when he made eye contact.

"I think that covers everything… is there anything else that I can get for you?"

"Actually, do you have anything I could eat, I haven't eaten in days."

The other dragons all shot Zach strange looks, what kind of a person doesn't eat for days?

"Yes, sure, Volteer brought in a catch earlier today. It was for Spyro and Cynder when they woke up, but I'm sure there's enough for all of you. Unfortunately we haven't had time to prepare any of it."

"Yeah speaking of food, I'm hungry." Cynder perked up from the other side of the room and Spyro was quick to follow suit.

"Alright, wait here and I'll be back soon." Terador left the room and came back less than a minute later carrying a large dead deer in his mouth, dropping it on the floor as he came in, then leaving the room. Spyro and Cynder immediately went after the carcass, taking off large chunks to eat. Zach, however, held himself back, a look of disgust on his face. Spyro and Cynder took a few more mouthfuls of meat before noticing that Zach wasn't eating.

"Hey, I thought you said you were hungry." Spyro looked up from where he was eating and stared at Zach.

"I am… its just…" Zach's voice faded away to almost a whisper, "I can't eat raw meat…"

Spyro gave Zach a surprised look before calming his expression. "Oh, I'm sorry, we usually do something to cook the meat, but we were kind of hungry. Here…" Spyro released a wave of fire over the carcass of the deer, searing off most of the skin and instantly cooking, if not burning, the meat. Spyro ended the stream in a fit of coughing, getting a concerned look from Cynder. "I'm ok, just a little tired."

"Thanks Spyro." Zach reached over and tore off a chunk of meat with his mouth, bringing it back to his own corner to eat. He couldn't help but feel feral in how he was eating, just ripping the meat and skin off bone, but the rest of his body didn't care, it had been quite some time since he had been able to find and stomach food.

When they were finished, Terador came back and took the remains of the deer out of the room, forcing Zach to avert his eyes from fear of losing his meal. Hopefully he could get used to eating like this or he didn't have to eat often, otherwise he might not be able to stomach his food.

Spyro and Cynder remained in his room after Terador had left both lying on their stomachs in a contented manor.

"Spyro, you left some of you food on your face." Cynder reached over giggling and licked off a piece of meat that was hanging off Spyro's maw.

Spyro blushed before reaching back licked the side of her face as well, causing her to laugh slightly.

"Ok, if you two love birds are going to make out, please go in the other room." Zach spoke up for the other side of the room, shielding his eyes with one of his wings.

"We were not…" Spyro stopped mid sentence, looking at Cynder out of the corner of his eyes who had turned away from him.

"Sure you weren't, but if your going to do something, do it somewhere else, like your own rooms." Zach comment brought a burst of laughter from Cynder while Spyro's own face turned red.

"Hey… I…" Spyro stammered trying to come up with the words to defend himself.

"What are you two still doing in here?" Terador walked back in the room staring at Spyro and Cynder.  
"You should be in your own rooms getting sleep. And you should get some sleep as well Zach, your testing will start early tomorrow morning." Terador looked at Zach with a slight grin on his face while Spyro and Cynder chuckled to each other.

"Testing? What testing?" Zach was confused by the sudden change of his plans, and was a little scared by the fact that Spyro and Cynder where chuckling.

"I want to see what you are capable of Zach, we have not seen anything like some of the powers you have exhibited and we would like to learn more. Besides if we do eventually agree to what you have proposed, we need to know what kind of self-preservation skills you posses. Malefore may be gone from this world, but there are still some evils out in the world you need to be able to defend yourself from, you of all people should know that."

"Yeah a little too well." Zach's teeth ground together as the memories flooded into his mind.

"Good, we'll start bright and early then, I will have someone come and get you when we are ready." With that, Terador left the room, quickly followed by both Spyro and Cynder.

"Good luck with that Zach…" Spyro called as he left the room. He had been through the guardians training once, and he didn't ever want to go through it again. It might be fun watching what Zach was capable of.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Training

"Zach… Zach wake up… The guardians are waiting, you need to get up." Zach felt something sharp prod his side as he was roused from the comfort of sleep. "The guardians have a lot of things set in front of you today, its best to get an early start or you may be up all night with them, and trust me you don't want that." Who ever was trying to wake hum up spoke in a quiet whisper that wasn't helping him along at all.

"Ugh… what time is it?" Zach rolled over on his bed and pulled a wing over his head, tying to get at least a few more minutes of sleep.

"Wake up!" Zach was jabbed in the side, more forcefully this time, causing him to shrink back in pain.

"Hey!" Zach opened his eyes but saw nothing, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision Zach opened his eyes again to discover that it was still completely dark out. If he wasn't so used to sleeping in a dark room he might not have been able to see. "Seriously? The sun isn't even up yet." Zach cried out in frustration and annoyance, would he ever get a normal nights sleep?

"Yeah, the guardians like getting a very early start on things." Zach turned his head around to the source of the voice, finding two blue eyes seeming to float in the air staring back at him.

"Cynder?"

"Yes." Zach noticed the outline of her body as she shifted in the dim twilight. "The guardians sent me to get you, now let's go."

"Why are you up so early?" Zach forced himself to his feet, stretching himself out while still trying to maintain his balance. "I figured they would be letting you and Spyro sleep in today… not like I could have used the sleep or anything…"

"I couldn't sleep anymore, my sleep pattern is messed up from the last few days." Cynder turned around and headed for the door of Zach's room, stopping and waiting for him at the door.

"I can imagine why." Zach finished his stretched and went to follow Cynder.

"Besides, I wanted to see you train…" Zach couldn't see Cynder's face, but he was sure there was an evil grin across her face.

"That's comforting." Zach caught up to Cynder as she led them both out of the room, turning down the hallway. "You lead because I have no idea where we are going."

"Hmm…" Cynder walked quickly downs the hallways, moving at a pace that made it hard for Zach to keep up. After a few different turns, they ended up back in the central chamber. Zach walked in moments after Cynder and was lucky to catch her before she disappeared down a different hallway.

"Hey wait up!" Zach called after Cynder, quickening his pace until he caught up to her part way down one of the hallways. Zach's mouth stretched out into a yawn as he walked up next to her. "You know you're really hard to follow in the dark."

"And you stick out like a rose among daisies." Cynder quickly ran one of her claws along Zach's shoulder, bringing attention to his stark white scales.

Zach opened his mouth to rebuke her, but decided against it. "You know I could be really hard to find if I wasn't so tired right now."

"Yeah well you better save you energy, and wake up too. The guardians are morning people and your going to need all your energy to get through today." Cynder continued down the hallway, taking Zach along one of the paths that he hadn't been down before.

"Why is this not encouraging to me?" Zach looked over at Cynder who had a smug look on her face.

"Why bother lying to you? You are in for a day tougher than you can ever imagine…" Zach cut Cynder off mid sentence.

"And you're going to enjoy all of this from the sidelines aren't you?" Zach watched as Cynder smug look turned into a full on grin.

"Yes I am. I had to go though this and much more. It will be nice watching someone else take the beating for once." Cynder turned her attention back to the path they were taking and led Zach into a hallway slightly larger than the others did.

"You are not helping…" Zach walked solemnly along beside her. The first day of sports was always brutal, and he had a feeling that this was going to be much worse. Hoping to enjoy his last moments of rest, Zach changed the subject. "So is Spyro still asleep? Or is he already with the guardians?"

Cynder huffed though her nose before shaking her head. "I swear that dragon could have slept though the world ending if other people hadn't been around to wake him up."

"Ha… I know the kind." Zach was actually talking about himself at the moment, would gladly trade places with Spyro right now, but the training couldn't be as bad as they made it out to be, could it?

"That dragon just confuses me sometimes..." Cynder kept her voice low and trailed off, expecting not to be heard.

"About more than one thing I'm sure…" Zach kept his voice and his head low while watching Cynder out of the corner of his eye for her reaction. Smiling in satisfaction as she startled a little before recomposing herself and turning an angry glare on him.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Zach had to turn his head away to keep Cynder from seeing him laughing at her flustered appearance.

"If you don't know… then I'm not going to be the one to say anything." Zach moved his head up and away from Cynder to dodge or soften the blow he knew was going to be coming.

Sure enough, Cynder reached around with her wing and smacked him in the back of the head. "That's the second time that you have said that to me. Now tell me what you're talking about or the training session will be the least of your worries." Cynder moved around and cut Zach off.

"Oh look, we're here, thanks for showing me the way Cynder…" As Cynder looked behind her to see where they were, Zach slipped past her into a large room where the guardians were waiting for him, occupied in their own conversations. As Zach walked into the room he looked over his shoulder to see Cynder fuming along the edge of the room, mouthing words at him.

"This isn't over." Zach could clearly read her lips as she stared him down from across the room.

Zach laughed slightly before replying in the same manner, "we'll see."

The room he was entering was more like a gymnasium, stretching out well above his head in a large dome that covered the entire grounds. It was easily fifty meters across and looked like it was designed for a variety of different uses. At the moment, there were various dummies set up in different places around the room, probably for some exercise the guardians had planned for him. As Zach made his way further into the center of the room, he notice that the floor was covered in a tick layer of fine sand, its was still cool but it made for a softer floor… Zach cringed as he realized just what the layer of sand was for. Hopefully he wouldn't need it.

Zach walked up in front of the three guardians, waiting patiently for them to finish their conversation.

Terador noticed Zach and stopped their conversation to address the young dragon. "Ah, Zach there you are, its good to see up this morning…"

Zach muttered under his breath, "not like I had a choice…"

"We will be running you through some different exercises to determine what skills you already process, then we will spend the rest of the day instructing you in areas that you need improvement."

Zach cringed, Cynder was right, he was going to be here all day.

"So fist we will start off with basic flying skills. " Terador pointed to various rings distributed around the room in a circular pattern along the walls, "this will test how competent you are in your ability to maintain and control you flight."

"So I'm literally flying through those rings… great." Zach flexed his wings out behind him, hoping to get rid of any soreness from the night before. His lack of experience and lack of rest was going to make this very interesting.

"Now listen closely. " Terador pointed to what seemed to be the largest ring, bolted three quarters of the way up the wall to a metal rod, "that is the first ring you will fly though, then head for the second ring over there. " Instead of pointing to the next ring in the circle, Terador pointed across the room to a completely different ring. This ring was slightly smaller than the first, meaning Zach would have to be more accurate to fly though it. "Then the third one." Terador pointed to the ring clockwise from the first ring in the sequence, this ring was oval in shape with the longer sides going vertically down the wall. The narrow part of the ring meant that he would have to roll himself onto his side if he wanted to make it though. "The fourth one is over there." Terador pointed to the ring counterclockwise from the first ring, the pattern was beginning to make sense to Zach, with the last ring on the other side, and his path would form a five-pointed star across the room. Zach took a careful look at the forth ring, it was set back into a small alcove in the wall that enveloped the ring, however there would be no way he could fly through the ring and turn out of the outcrop without running straight into the wall. Before Zach had much time to examine the ring, Terador moved onto the next one. "The fifth ring is up there, people often miss that one." Terador pointed up to the ceiling of the room, exposing a ring along the ceiling. From where he was Zach could see that the ring was placed horizontally versus vertically like the other rings and that there was dangerously small amount of space between it and the ceiling. "And the last ring is over there." Terador pointed to the only remaining ring in the room. This ring was the smallest one yet, barely big enough for Zach to squeeze through with his wings against his body. Zach winced as he figured how he might have to fit though that one.

"As you may have seen, each ring poses its own unique challenge along with testing you basic flying skills. It isn't a comprehensive test but it will give us a good idea where to start. We will give you a few minutes to warm up and ponder how to get through each ring before we begin." Terador left Zach and went to rejoin his fellow guardians to continue their conversation.

Zach only shook his head in disbelief as he examined each ring. The first two should be easy enough, but after that he was likely to injure himself. Zach turned to Cynder with a questioning glance only to see her laughing at him. "Yes Zach, they are serious."

Zach only sighed and spread his wings to take off. He might as well try and work the soreness out of his muscles before he put them to real use. Launching himself off the ground, Zach made large slow circles around the room, examining each ring as he passed. The first three shouldn't be a problem, all he had to do was hit the center of the ring at the right angle and he would make it though easily. The fifth ring he understood well enough, he would just need to keep the arc of his body low enough that he didn't hit the ceiling. And as much as he hated to think about it, all he had to do for the sixth ring was fly though with his wings plastered to his body, which seemed simple enough. He just had to make sure to hit his target.

But it was the fourth ring that bothered him the most. The ring was completely set into the wall so that the outside of the ring was flush with the inside of the wall of the large room, and the small area of wall taken out around the ring wasn't enough to turn around in.

Zach hovered around the fourth ring, scratching his head trying to figure out how to get through. Desperate, her turned around and caught Cynder's attention, who was still sitting on the ground. Cynder cocked her head at Zach who only shrugged and pointed at the ring. Cynder shook her head slowly before pointing at her talons and then the wall behind her.

Confused Zach mouthed the words "What?" back at her, careful not to let the guardians know. Cynder sighed and shook her head again before standing up and walking over to the wall behind her. Cynder pointed forcefully at her talons before scraping them along the wall, leaving chalky white streaks down the wall. When she was done Cynder pointed a finger back at the wall behind Zach

Zach turned around and examined the wall that lined the small alcove and sure enough, there were numerous scrapes and gouges from talons that had run along the wall. Zach turned back around and smiled at Cynder, he had a good enough idea of what he had to do now. Cynder only rolled her eyes for a reply.

"Zach are you ready?" Terador called him from the other side of the room.

Zach nodded in response, he was as ready as he would ever be. Flying over to Terador, he landed a few feet in front of him, keeping himself ready for what they were going to put him through.

"Good. Now, all you need to do is fly through the rings in order. Try and do it as quickly as possible because you will be timed."

"you make it sound so easy…" Zach let out a groan as he turned to face the first ring.

Terador either didn't hear or chose to ignore Zach's last comment. "You may begin when ready."

Zach took a deep breath to calm him before launching himself into the air with a powerful flap of his wings. Zach shot off towards the first ring at a considerable pace, putting more of his energy into his speed than gaining altitude

Zach sped towards the first ring, skimming along the wall to get a straight shot at the ring in front of him. he quickly reached the ring and passed through, pulling his wings closer to his body even through the ring was more than wide enough to accompany his impressive wing span. After passing though the first ring ring, Zach banked sharply to pass over the center of the room where the guardians were standing. "Well this isn't that hard…" Zach though to himself as he continued his pace over the guardians.

"You'll have to be faster than that if you want to get anywhere today!" Terador shouted up at Zach as he passed over the guardians' heads.

"So much for that thought…" Zach muttered to himself even though he was begging to become short of breath. Quickly increasing the rate of his wings, Zach shot of faster towards the second ring. The setup of the rings placed him in a position so that he would have to arc out around a straight path if he wanted to get a straight shot at the ring.

Zach banked out and around to line himself up with the ring. Since this one was smaller than the first, he would have to pull in his wings to fit through, otherwise he would end up on the ground in a massive amount of pain. Accelerating up to the ring, Zach gave one final push with his wings before tucking them close to his body. Zach watched as the ring in front of him grew larger in his field of vision, but as he passed through the ring, he felt his body begin to drop, the edges of his wings and the end of his tail slamming hard against the bottom of the metal ring.

Zach grunted from the pain as he flared his wings on the other side of the ring. His wings cried out in pain from the blunt impact, but he pushed on, it wasn't anything that he couldn't ignore… for now. Zach grunted again as he changed direction to head towards the third ring, his momentum increasing the strain on his wings as he banked through the turn.

"Faster Zach…" Terador shouted to Zach as he passed over the guardians' heads yet again.

Zach pushed himself harder as he lined up for the third ring. It was going to pose a problem for him seeing as he was gong to have to turn his entire body vertical in order to fly though the ring. As he approached the ring, Zach threw his weight to the side, turning his body so his wings were level with the outside wall only moments before he passed through the ring. Zach felt the tip of his right wing brush against the top of the ring, but other than that he made it through the ring unscathed. Using the position of his body and the momentum gained by his rotation, Zach perform an exceptionally sharp turn back towards the center of the room.

"There you go Zach…" Zach smiled to himself that Terador was actually encouraging him at this point.

Zach furrowed his brow as he looked at the forth ring in front of him. From what he had seen, he was going to have to push off the wall with his feet to get through the ring while still maintaining his speed and not hitting the wall. It still wasn't going to be easy though, he would have to aim at a sharper angle to fit between the ring and the outcropped wall. Zach neared the ring, focusing on exactly what he would have to do to get through the last step. Just before entering the outcropped part of the wall, Zach turned his wings out, slowing himself down while throwing his body forward so his stomach was against the wall while horizontal to the ground. Unfortunately for him, he realized his mistake too late.

"Crap"

Zach slammed hard into the wall feet first, using his legs to absorb most of the impact, however his head and tail whipped around and cracked against the wall as well. Zach felt himself begin to fall off the wall as his initial energy wore off, falling down to the bottom of the outcrop before bouncing and falling the twenty some feet to the sandy floor below.

"Zach!" Cynder and the guardians rushed over to where Zach had fallen, crowding around him to see the extent of his injuries.

Cynder took a step closer than the guardians, worry in her voice as she spoke softly to Zach. "Zach… Zach are you ok…"

Zach groaned slightly before rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself on wobbly legs. Once he was on his shaky feet rubbed the sand out of his face and eyes. "The sun is not up yet, my entire body is sore, and I just ate a face-full of dirt. I think its going to be a long day." Zach wobbled again and he allowed himself to fall down to the ground to prevent further injury.

Taking Zach's comment as a sign of his well being, the dragons surrounding him burst into laughter.

Volteer tried to speak though his fits of laughter. "Why I haven't seen a dragon take a hit like that in many years."

"Smooth Zach…" Cynder walked over to Zach shaking her head. "Took that turn a little fast didn't you?"

"Hey now, I bet you weren't that good the fist time you did this either." Zach tired to defend himself from his position on the ground, keeping his eyes closed to keep the room from spinning around him.

"Actually…" Cynder let herself trail of as Zach groaned again and fluttered his wings.

"On second though, I don't want to hear it." Zach carefully pushed himself up onto his front legs. His head was still spinning, but it was becoming bearable.

"Well were glad you're alright Zach." Terador had recovered enough from his bout of laughter to talk straight again, though a grin still tugged on the corners of him mouth. "Why don't you and Cynder go get something to eat while you recover…" Terador held back a snort as he began to laugh again. "Just don't be too long."

Zach shook his head but immediately regretted it as the room began to spin around him again. He got why they were laughing at him, and it didn't bother him much. He would probably be doing the same thing if he were not the one who had run into the wall, but the pain throughout his body made everything less funny to him. "Don't worry about me I'm sure ill be fine." Zach tried to stand on all fours but began to tip over, only to feel Cynder push up beside him to hold his balance, Zach looked over to see Cynder looking at him with a toothy grin. "What?"

"Come on, let's get you sat down somewhere before you hurt yourself again." Cynder let out a small chuckle as she began to lead Zach down the hallway. Leaning on Cynder for support, Zach had no choice but to follow her.

Cynder led Zach a sort ways down the hall into what looked like an enormous dinning room. A large table took up most of the room with elegant, but not over excessive, decorations lining the walls and ceilings. It looked like it could comfortably fit a whole host of dragons, but Zach couldn't quite tell how many that would be.

"Wow, this place is huge…" Zach took a wobbling step out towards the center of the room away from Cynder, gazing around the large room.

Cynder immediately felt the weight lift from her side and chased after Zach, pushing him back towards their intended destination. "Come on, this is no time for you to be wandering around."

Cynder ushered Zach through one of the doorways lining the sides of the room, taking them into what looked like a kitchen or a pantry area, but the one thing that caught Zach's attention was the food in various places around the room.

"You need to eat. But be careful that you don't eat too much or too fast. After that blow to your head you might not be able to stomach things very well."

Zach simply ignored Cynder as he stumbled towards a large pile of meat on one of the tables. As he got closer, the smell of cooked meat wafted through this nose and piqued his appetite. Using one of his talons, Zach speared through a large chunk of meat and began ripping off rather large chunks with his mouth.

"or not…" Cynder walked over and took some food for herself as well, siting down across from Zach. The two ate in silence, Zach ravenously attacking his food while Cynder only picked at her food.

Zach quickly finished the portion of food he had grabbed and reached for more but decided against it. He would have to be active for the rest of the day, so it wouldn't be a good idea to eat too much. Zach looked up from his food to see Cynder watching, uninterested in what he was doing.

Seeing Zach look up at her, Cynder stood to her feet and walked over next to him. "Are you ready to head back? The guardians will expect us back before too long."

"I suppose so, though I can't say that I want to go back." Zach sighed and shifted his weight so he could push himself up

"I don't blame you for that." Cynder glanced back over her shoulder at the door, this may be the only break that Zach got today.

"I guess I have to though, if I want to get anywhere that is." Zach tried to push himself up, but his legs faltered slightly

"Heh, it looks like you might still need some help getting back." Cynder walked over beside Zach and helped push him up.

As Zach was getting to his feet, his gaze fell across Cynder's neck. Three large jagged scars marred the otherwise sleek black scales, giving Cynder a slightly disfigured appearance. Zach cringed as he realized that he had been the one that had caused them.

"Are you ok?" Cynder looked worriedly at Zach, she had seen him cringe.

"Yeah I'm fine, I was just thinking." Zach looked away from Cynder before feeling his gaze slowly drift back to the scars on Cynder's neck.

"Here let me fix that scar on your neck." Zach reached up with one of his hands and went to place it on Cynder's neck.

"What?" Cynder looked crossly at Zach as he reached for her before she realized what he was doing. "No, Zach you need to keep your energy for your trials." Cynder pulled her head away from Zach, turning away to keep herself out of his reach.

"I don't care, I feel horrible for doing it and I won't be satisfied until you let me help." Zach pushed around to Cynder's neck again. Cynder pulled away again but grudgingly allowed him to place his hand on her neck once she saw that he was not going to be swayed. A small amount of energy flowed from Zach to Cynder as Zach focused on repairing the scar tissue.

Cynder laughed in spite of herself as she felt Zach working on her neck, it tickled.

After only a few moments, Zach removed his hand and looked at her neck.

"How does it look?" Cynder had to ask seeing as she couldn't see that part of her neck

"You look beautiful."

Cynder only stared at Zach at hearing those words coming out of his mouth. Zach immediately picked up on it and realized his mistake.

"Hey don't take more out of that then what I meant. I mean I like you, just not like that."

Cynder let out a small sigh of relief. " I was beginning to think that blow to your head did more than we thought."

Zach laughed and turned away from Cynder. "Yeah, well…just learn to take a compliment every once and a while."

Cynder smiled in spite of herself as she watched Zach. There was something special, and strange, about this dragon. Outside of Spyro and the guardians, he was the first one who had taken her at face value, never second guessed her, never brought up her checkered past… but even then she couldn't help but think that his own choices may have had some influence on that. But did it matter, Zach was trying, or at least it seemed like he was, to make up for his past mistakes. And wasn't that exactly what she was trying to do. Even in the few moments she had spent in Warfang in the past few days, she could see it. The sideways glances, the hidden hatred, the fear that she carried around with her everywhere she went. Would it ever really go away?

Cynder sighed deeply and traced circles on the floor with one of her talons. Maybe that's why she was more trusting of Zach tan Spyro was. She knew all to well what it was like to try you're hardest to redeem yourself, yet it never seemed to be enough. They may not have known each other for very long, but she couldn't help but feel connected to him in that way. To know that there was someone else out there that felt her pain, that knew her remorse… that knew that all to familiar pain that never went away.

"Cynder?"

Cynder looked up from the floor to see Zach looking at her with concern in his eyes. "Is everything ok…"

Cynder looked away as she felt the hot tears that were running down her face, she wondered how long she had been crying. "Yeah I'm fine…"

Zach could hear the cracks in her voice, and after seeing her face, knew that everything wasn't all right. "Hey, whatever it is… I'm sure you have people around you who can help. Terador, Cyril, Volteer…. And I'm sure Spyro would love to talk with you…" Cynder didn't see the small wink Zach gave her with his last comment.

"What about you?" Cynder turned back to Zach having stopped crying, but keeping her head down because her eyes were still puffy and red.

"Heh… I'm sure you have better people to talk to than me." Zach turned away from Cynder, speaking more to the wall behind him than her.

"Hey don't sell yourself short Zach, I know what you've been through, more than you could possible imagine. The others may not completely trust you yet, but they're trying, and I know your heart is in the right place.

Zach turned around, giving Cynder a quizzical look. "Where did that come from?"

Cynder looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "Ignitus told me that once…"

Zach lowered his head so she was looking him in the eyes. "Hey, that's not a bad thing." Zach's tone perked up a little as he nudged Cynder with one of his forepaws, "now then, I'm feeling better and from what you've said, if I don't get going now I'll be out all night. So how about we get back to the guardians."

Cynder smiled again, getting up and passing Zach out the door. "Ok then, it's your funeral."

"I should have just stayed in bed, I should have just not come back to this room, I should have just not come back to the temple at all. But no, I did, and this is what happened." Zach's thoughts were cut short as he was forced to duck under and arm swinging at his head.

"Come on Zach, focus!" Terador was yelling at Zach from the edge of the arena.

Zach turned his attention back to his attacker, but even then he couldn't focus completely. He was being attacked by a moving wooden dummy, and it was still too weird for his brain to completely comprehend.

Zach weaved under another swing from the dummy before retaliating with a blow of his own, catching the dummy across the chest with his talons. Though it didn't do anything to the dummy, Zach knew it would have been a crippling blow to anything living.

"Good, now keep going Zach you're not done yet."

Zach grunted and jumped back to avoid the next sting of attacks from the dummy. It had been like this for most of the morning, though it had taken him hours to even get to this point of proficiency. His body was covered with cuts and bruises he had accumulate from fighting. He wouldn't have thought that a wooden dummy could do that much damage if he hadn't been on the other end.

A small portion of his morning had been given to examining his elemental abilities, but since Zach had very little knowledge about his powers, that portion of his morning had been fairly short. Immediately after that, he had been thrown into what he called combat training, and his morning had gone downhill since then.

Duck, weave, jump, roll, dodge, counterattack; the repetition was monotonous but Zach knew it was probably for the best. He had even seen improvement in himself in the short time that the guardians had been working with him. When he had started earlier this morning, he was more of a punching bag than a combatant, even against the wooden dummy. But now he could at least hold his own, though he knew it still wasn't quite what the guardians had hoped for.

"Focus Zach!" Teardor's irritated voice snapped Zach out of his memories and back to the fight at hand. Zach jumped to the side as the dummy swung one of its arms over its head and down towards Zach. The arm grazed Zach's side but simply bounced off the scales, not causing any real damage. Zach watched as the dummy's momentum carried it past him leaving it open to attack. Zach swung around with his arm and smashed into the dummy with his elbow, quickly followed by a second punch from his other arm, then continuing his body's rotation and smashing into it with his tail. Zach sent the dummy flying across the arena which promptly splintered against the wall.

Zach stood in the center of the arena panting heavily, his talons sank part way into the soft sand beneath him sticking to small cuts on his hands and irritating injuries he had accumulated throughout the day. Zach slowly lifted his head towards the guardians who motioned for him to approach.

Zach slowly made his way towards the guardians, panting heavily from the physical exertion of the morning. His head only throbbed slightly from his incident earlier in the morning but it still caused him some discomfort. As Zach sat down next to the trio of guardians they changed their conversation so that they were addressing Zach.

"Significant improvement since this morning." Volteer was standing at the back of the group, speaking over Terador's shoulder.

"Yes, indeed. You haven't taken a significant hit in the last three matches" Cyril spoke up from behind Terador's other shoulder.

"You have indeed improved since earlier this morning, you are a very quick learner. With a day or two more training, you should be able to handle yourself. Not that it will be adequate or thorough, but it should be enough with the time we have." Terador finally addressed Zach, leaving him unsure of whether to smile or groan at his statement.

"Thank you." Zach smiled and bowed as much as his weary body would allow, he wasn't sure if it was appropriate or not, but it was about all he could do.

"I wouldn't thank us yet Zach, you're not finished, and there may be something else we ask of you before you leave." Zach looked up again to see Terador and the other guardians with smirks on their faces, leaving him to wonder just what they had in store for him. "but for now, I think you have earned a break. There is food in the kitchen if you would like some and you are free to roam about the temple for now. Just be back here in about an hour.

Zach nodded again and hurried off, eager to find some water for his parched throat, leaving the guardians by themselves to watch him go.

As soon as he left, the guardians began speaking their minds, asking the questions they were afraid to bring up around Zach.

"I still don't get him Terador." Volteer turned so he was facing the center of the group and sat down in the soft grass.

"There are a lot of things that we do not understand Volteer, but given time, things may become clearer." Terador turned around to face the group as well, taking care to keep his voice low so it did not carry through the temple.

"But it's the simple questions that have gone unanswered that worry me. Where did he come from, and why does it seem like he has never fought before. Even the youngest of us have some knowledge in combat." Volteer carried on quickly through the conversation, his irritated tone adding a charge to his words.

"As for where he comes from, Zach seems to keep that to himself above all else. Every time he has been asked he tries to divert the conversation or ignore it all together. But I don't suppose I can blame him. He probably trusts us as much as we trust him, keeping where he comes from a secret might be his way of protecting himself." Cyril joined the conversation as well, he always seemed to have the most positive view of Zach in the group.

"I do suppose that would make sense, but what about how he fights? I find it very unlikely that no one ever taught him how to fight."

"It would seem that way, though I find that hard to believe that he has not had any experience at all, especially with the events of the last few years." Terador pondered the possibilities, as did the others in the group.

Volteer spoke up again after only a few moments. "And what about his fights with Spyro? He held his own and even beat Spyro then, it would have been impossible for him then, even in Spyro's weakened state, if he could only fight like he could this morning."

"Yes that does pose some interesting questions now doesn't it. Either he wasn't fighting like himself when he fought Spyro, or he is putting on an excellent show for us." Terador ran through the possible implications if Zach was still feigning ignorance, but it seemed unlikely. However, a reasonable explanation for his change in behavior was just as unlikely.

Cyril broke the silence forming between the three guardians. "Perhaps we should just give him some more time today. If he really started today without any skills then he has made considerable progress. Perhaps we can learn more from him before he goes."

An idea came to Volteer's mind as Cyril mentioned watching Zach. "Maybe we should keep him close for a while longer. He doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry, and we could always use the help in the coming weeks. That way we could keep him close and watch how he acts."

Terador let out a low hum as he considered the option. "I do suppose that could be an option, but I'm not sure what could happen if we left him around the others, and from what he told me, he may not have the time to stay."

Cyril glanced down the hallway to make sure no one was there before posing his question. "Perhaps we should let Spyro help decide, after all this does affect him as well."

Terador shook his head "No, letting him know of Zach's intentions will only hasten his decision. Besides, I think Spyro needs to be able to trust Zach as well. Having him around the temple for a while longer may be the best idea after all."

"Well how do you think Zach will react to this?" Volteer queried.

"I'm sure that he won't mind too much, it's not like he has much of a choice anyway. Now perhaps we should save more of this conversation until later. I only gave Zach an hour break and I would like to get some rest before that hour is over."

Cynder walked slowly down the hallway towards Spyro's room. As much fun as it was to watch Zach get his but kicked by a dummy, she couldn't stay there all day and she wanted to see Spyro again anyway. She hadn't seen him all morning and it was getting close to noon. He would have to be up soon anyway so she took the time to go see him. Besides, Zach and the guardians would be preoccupied with his training, so that left her and Spyro alone to themselves. They always seemed to be interrupted when they were together, and there were some things that she need to talk about.

Cynder knocked gently on the doorframe to Spyro's room. "Spyro, are you awake?" Cynder heard a muffled reply come from somewhere in the room. Though she couldn't quiet make out the words, she figured it was ok and pushed her way through the curtain into the room.

Spyro was lying on his back on his bed, looking out the small window in the wall of his room. As Cynder walked in his room, Spyro turned his head so he was looking at her. Cynder let a small smile come to her lips; Spyro was kind of cute upside down like that.

"Hey Cynder." Spyro gave Cynder a small smile as he lay there, though he made no move to right himself.

"Hey Spyro, we've been wondering were you've been. I haven't seen you all morning." Cynder moved and stood over Spyro, bending her head down towards Spyro's upturned face and placing the tip of her nose against his.

Spyro had to force himself to suppress a smile at the small amount of contact between the two, but as Cynder's nose brushed against Spyro's, the urge for him to sneeze became stronger. At last the urge became too much and Spyro was forced to break the contact and turn his head, sneezing and sending a small jet of fire against the wall.

Cynder giggled at his antics. "I see someone is feeling better."

Spyro gave Cynder a strange look, he hadn't ever head her giggle like that. "Yeah, you could say that." Spyro let out a heavy sigh and turned back towards the window, sure he had been feeling better, but he still had a lot of things on his mind.

"Something bothering you Spyro?" Cynder walked around behind Spyro and lay down next to him, putting her head alongside his on the ground. She wasn't sure how he would take it, but she was looking for an excuse just to get close to him.

Spyro sighed again, keeping his head along the ground, facing away from Cynder. "It not that I'm worried about anything, I've just been thinking."

"About what?" Cynder moved her head up against Spyro's, rubbing up against the bottom of his chin.

Spyro let out another sigh as Cynder rubbed against his chin, though this time from contentment. Spyro gently lifted his head and draped his head and neck over Cynder's intertwining their necks. This time it was Cynder who murmured.

Cynder's heart was pounding heavily in her ears. What was it Spyro was going to say? His words his actions… could he possibly be thinking the same thing?

"When we were in Warfang, I couldn't help but notice, there were other dragons there Cynder. Its not just you and me. To think that all our lives there have been people close to our age, we just didn't know about it…" Spyro drifted off, leaving the two siting in silence together.

Cynder waited patiently as Spyro worked through his thoughts. It wasn't where she hoped he was going, but she was content to listen to him just the same. As the silence dragged on, Cynder adjusted herself simply to feel the scales on her neck rub up against Spyro. She would have stayed in this position with him forever, but his unfinished thought was beginning to bother her. "What is it Spyro?"

"I don't know Cynder… it's just… there are more dragons out there Cynder…" Spyro paused for a moment, he didn't quite know what he wanted to say. He wanted nothing more than to be with Cynder, but she deserved to be able to make her own choices as well. All her life she had been tethered to someone or something. Now that she wasn't, Spyro wanted her to do what she wanted, no matter how much it hurt him to say so. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to. And I wouldn't blame you if you left." The words hurt Spyro even as he said them. He loved Cynder and he knew that much, but he didn't know if she felt the same. And now that they knew there were more dragons their age, he just wanted her to be happy.

What Spyro didn't see though was how his words affected Cynder. Each word seemed to slam into her with more force than any blow could ever cause. Did he not want her here with him, did he want he to leave. A small tear trickled down her cheek but she quickly turned her head and wiped it away. How could she have ever been so stupid. To think that Spyro might actually have feelings for her, after all that she had done. And now that there were other dragons in the picture, she didn't even stand a chance. Besides Spyro deserved whatever would make him happy. He had done so much for them, she could take it if it was what would make him happy.

An uneasy silence settled between the two, leaving each uncomfortable in their position. Cynder was the one to break the silence by sliding her head out from under Spyro, standing up, and walking towards the door. "You should probably get something to eat, you've been sleeping all morning and its meal time."

Spyro raised his head to watch her walk out the door. He thought he had heard something in her voice, something wrong, but he couldn't see her face as she left the room. He leaving had been so abrupt, something had to be wrong. Spyro quickly got up and followed her out of his room, chasing Cynder down the hall to catch up with her. As he walked up beside her, Cynder turned her head away slightly and left an unnatural space between them. Spyro couldn't help but feel cold as they walked down the hallway, not a word spoken between the two.

Cynder quickly turned the corner and pushed her way into the same room she had led Zach to earlier that day, forcing Spyro to stop behind her. Spyro regained his composure and followed her into the room. She had already made her way halfway across the room, her back still turned to him. Zach had somehow found his way back to the same place and was already lying down over in one of the corners of the room eating.

As the two entered the room, Zach looked up from where he was eating, immediately giving them a questioning look as they entered the room separately. Cynder simply ignored him and walked to the opposite corner of the room, grabbing some food along the way. She quickly curled herself into the corner, keeping her back to Zach and Spyro.

Spyro made his way over and sat down next to Zach.

Zach stopped eating his food and turned to Spyro, speaking in a whisper so only they could hear his conversation. "Hey, what's going on between you two?"

Spyro shook his head, glancing over at Cynder. "I not sure."

"Hmm… well I would say she's upset about something." Zach took great care to keep his voice low. He didn't like talking about people behind their backs, but he did want to help Spyro.

"Why would you say that?" Spyro knew she was upset, but if Zach could tell just by how they walked in, it might be more worrisome than he thought.

Zach almost rolled his eyes at Spyro, but thought better of it. "Well, you didn't walk in together, you've been giving her strange looks since you walked in here, and, the big giveaway, she is sitting over there with her back turned to you."

"I know Zach, it's just that… I'm not sure why." Spyro looked hard at Cynder, he knew he had done something wrong, but what had it been. He just wanted what was best for Cynder, even if that meant her leaving.

"Well then maybe you should go talk to her." Zach used a matter of fact tone and nudged Spyro with his tail, causing Spyro to look at him with surprise. "Well go on…"

"I don't know Zach…" Spyro turned back to Zach, shifting his weight.

"Spyro if you did do something stupid, and she took it the wrong way, you probably want to take care of it now before something else happens." Zach jerked his head over towards Cynder again, "I'm sure she'll understand."

As he was finishing his sentence, Cyril burst into the room. "Ah Zach there you are, we've been looking for you. And I see you have Spyro and Cynder with you as well, good, Terador has been looking for them as well. Come you are all needed in the training room." Cyril quickly finished and left the room leaving the younger dragons by themselves.

Cynder quickly got up from her spot in the corner and followed Cyril out the door, leaving Zach and Spyro alone in the room together. "Ok then… I guess you should talk to her later..." Zach mumbled as he looked off towards where Cynder left the room.

"Yeah… sure" Spyro's voice was barely audible as he stood and walked out of the room, leaving Zach by himself.

"Alright then… I guess I should be going then." Zach spoke to the empty air, a little frustrated that he was the one to be left alone in the room, seeing as he had the least amount of knowledge as to how to get back to the training room. He could understand why though.

Zach made his way out of the room and back down the winding hallways towards the room he had been training in for the last few hours.

His muscles groaned in pain at the prospect of going back to such rigorous work, but Zach knew it was necessary. He had already run into people trying to kill him on multiple occasions and it was only by luck that he had survived so far. The training the guardians were putting him through would do him good.

Zach could see Spyro and Cynder standing on opposite sides of the guardians, neither attempting to make eye contact with the other. He let out a heavy sigh. Those two had so much going for them right now, but why was it that everyone but them could see it? Hopefully they could work out what ever their little squabble was; he would hate to see one of them hurt over it.

Zach reigned in his thought as he joined the group of dragons. He wanted to know what kind of a crazy task the guardians had in store for him now.

"Zach, you look rested up." Terador acknowledged Zach with a nod of his head.

"Yes, thank you." Zach replied with a nod of his head as well, talking with the guardians always seemed strange to him, it was too formal.

"Good. Now that you're back we can continue with training. You have shown improvement since we began this morning…"

Cynder broke into Terador's conversation with stifled laughter, breaking his train of thought and earning her a stern glare.

"Anyway… you have improved significantly, but we believe that you would benefit from a different style of training for now, and we also believe that there is some part of your training that can only be achieved through actual combat."

Zach nodded his head in agreement again, though his mind was telling him to do differently. He didn't like where the guardian was headed with this.

"so we decided that you training for the rest of the day will be a sparing match." Terador finished with another nod of his head, as if affirming to himself what he had just said.

Zach was lost. "Ok, but how is that different that what I've been doing all morning?"

"Oh, you will not be fighting wooden dummies any more Zach, you will be fighting Cynder."

"What?"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Sparing

"Are you kidding me?" Zach nearly choked on his own spit as he heard what the guardians said.

"No, I assure you, we are completely serious." Cyril replied to Zach outburst, everyone else was either laughing or trying to hide their amusement.

"Yes Zach, pitting you against Cynder will hopefully bring up a natural instinct from you. Besides, it can't hurt anything." Terador nodded first at Cynder then at Zach, signaling them to take their positions.

Cynder simply walked off to one side of the arena stretching herself out in preparation. Zach however, stayed behind to plead his case more.

Keeping his voice low, Zach shot questions at Terador. "Are you crazy? You're going to pit me against her? Do you want me to die?" Zach couldn't keep his voice from rising as he kept asking questions.

Terador raised a hand and silenced Zach. "Relax Zach, its just a sparing match, Cynder knows more than enough to keep from seriously harming you. Now please go take your spot"

Zach only rolled his eyes, apparently there was no way he was getting out of this. Zach muttered under his breath as he walked over to the opposite end of the arena from Cynder. "Yeah… she wont 'seriously' hurt me, more like, 'you'll only be eating through a tube after this'. I don't quite understand where the guardians are going with this one, but I do know that this isn't going to end well." Zach kneaded his talons into the sand beneath his feet, he really didn't know what he was supposed to do anyway.

"Hey Terador." Zach yelled back over his shoulder. "What am I doing out here anyway?"

Terador chuckled to himself and walked over to Zach. "I suppose I should explain things to you now shouldn't I? It very simple actually, you and Cynder will simply spar with each other, your objective is to get your opponent onto the ground, but you will not use excessive force or any sharp part of your body. Eventually you will get to the point where sparing will utilize all of your abilities, but for now do not use your elemental abilities and try to stay on the ground." Terador raised his voice so Cynder heard the last part of his statement, looking over his shoulder Cynder acknowledged him with a nod.

"Ok, so in other words, try to stay on your feet?" Zach brought Terador's attention back to him.

"Yes, that is the general idea." Terador nodded his head again and walked off of the arena, leaving Zach and Cynder alone in the middle.

Cynder held herself low to the ground, her stance obviously from years of experience. Her talons dug into the soft sand beneath her while her wing fanned out behind her parallel to the ground. She meant business, and Zach could tell.

Zach on the other hand, had no idea what he was doing. He awkwardly tried to copy Cynder's stance but only succeeded in almost falling over. Instead he moved his feet into a more natural position still trying to keep his body low to the ground. As he compared his stance with Cynder's he could tell that his feet were spread much farther apart, with his weight mostly on this back feet. His wings were also tucked close to his body rather than played out behind him like Cynder's were.

"See I told you." Zach heard Volteer nudge Cyril from their place on the side of the arena.

"What was that Volteer" Zach yelled back at the guardians. Anything he could do to stall for time would benefit him.

Terador only chuckled and yelled back at Zach. "Don't worry about it Zach, take your position and you can begin."

Zach settled back into his stance muttering to himself. "Like I know what I'm supposed to be doing…" looking back over at Cynder, Zach felt a shiver run down his spine. Her usually active face was masked in a shroud of seriousness and purpose. And underneath it all, he could see the slightest spark of anger in her eyes. Zach shivered again. Hopefully that anger wouldn't be directed at him

"Alright then. Begin!"

Zach watched as Cynder sprung from her crouched position, flying towards him like a rocket. Zach tried to sidestep her charge but only succeeded in throwing himself off balance. Cynder took advantage of this and swiped at Zach's legs with her tail as she passed.

Zach felt his legs buckle out from underneath him as Cynder's tail collided with his shins. Knowing he wouldn't have much time to react, Zach used what leverage he had left to push him self away from Cynder, rolling along the ground before scrambling to get his footing.

Just like before, Cynder was on him in moments, this time swiping at his shoulders and head with her forepaws. Zach felt each blow bounce of his hardened scales, trying to move with each punch to soften the blow. Cynder wasn't using her talons and therefore wasn't going to cause any real damage, but each blow to Zach's body still caused him a deal of pain.

Zach knew he was going tot have to do something if he was going to have any sort of a chance of beating Cynder, well, at the very least saving some of his dignity. Zach waited until Cynder went at him again, this time stepping backwards so that Cynder's momentum pulled her in front of him. As she moved in front of him, Zach lashed out with his tail, hoping to catch her legs out from under her or at the very least trip her up, however, Cynder had other plans.

As Zach lashed out with his tail, Cynder shifted her body and sprang off the ground, rolling onto and over Zach's back landing softly on the other side. Zach was caught with both his head and body turned the opposite direction and Cynder quickly took advantage of this, placing a quick kick to his exposed side.

Zach bounced and rolled across the sandy ground, somehow managing to right himself and stand to his feet in one smooth motion, unfortunately for him, he still wasn't fast enough to contend with Cynder, who had already charged in his direction.

Cynder once again lashed out at Zach with her tail, this time using enough force to completely knock him off his feet. Zach felt his legs give out from underneath him before finding himself upside-down on the ground, his back in the dirt, and Cynder on top of him pinning him to the ground.

"Good job Cynder, I see you haven't lost you touch. Zach you did well, though next time, you might actually want to hit Cynder versus letting her use you as a punching bag." Terador called out to the two combatants in the center of the ring.

Zach looked up to see Cynder looking down at him with an emotionless expression before wordlessly getting off him and walking back to a respectful distance. Zach coughed hard once Cynder's weight had been removed from his body, taking in deep breaths to calm his nerves and clear his head. His body was now covered in aches and pains from where Cynder had pummeled him, especially his shins and shoulders.

"Zach, are you alright?" Zach could hear the guardians calling out to him from their side of the arena.

All Zach could manage for an answer was a low groan as he shakily picked himself off the ground and stood to his feet.

"Ok, good. Now get ready to go again."

Zach would have loudly protested if he had the energy to, though at this point it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. Moving slowly, Zach made his way back to the center of the arena where Cynder was already waiting. She was already in her fighting stance waiting for the signal to begin again. He had to figure out some way to fight her. He couldn't contend with her speed or her skill, so he would just have to find some way around them. The two things he had to his advantage were weight and strength, though he highly doubted he was any stronger than Cynder, he was kind of a weakling, and he didn't see how his weight could help him.

Zach settled back down into his 'stance' or what resembled one, staring back at Cynder again. Even if he did manage to land a blow, he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He still felt bad for what had happened and even mock fighting her felt wrong, and the fact that she was a girl didn't help things along either.

Zach sighed and tired to focus his mind on the task at hand, that was a moral dilemma that would have to wait for another time.

Zach faintly heard one of the guardians shout "begin" before seeing Cynder bolt at him again. Cynder raced at him much like she had the first time, springing off the ground the ground only feet from him. This time Zach had some idea of what to do. Standing up onto his hind legs, Zach took the brunt of her charge square in the chest. Rolling onto his back, Zach softened the blow while wrapping his arms around Cynder, keeping her close to his body trying to pin her to the ground.

Cynder had other plans. Kicking out against Zach's body, Cynder managed to break free while they were still rolling on the ground. Cynder tumbled to the ground a few feet away from Zach, quickly picking herself off the ground. Zach struggled to his feet as well, coughing slightly from the blow to his chest.

Starring each other down, the two dragons began to circle each other. Zach smiled slightly to himself, Cynder wasn't going headlong after him now, and he must have done something right. Both dragons continued their paths around each other, neither taking their eyes off the other. Once again Cynder was the first one to make a move, tough this time it was subtler. Cynder slowly decreased the radius of the circle, drawing closer to Zach with each step she took.

Zach was forced to start rotating his body to follow Cynder. as she began to get closer to him, Zach was forced to rotate faster, swiveling his neck and shoulders as Cynder tried to get behind Zach. As it became more difficult to follow Cynder, Zach realized his mistake. By allowing Cynder to get around and behind him, he had placed himself in a position where he couldn't move without putting himself at a disadvantage. All he could do now was hope he could counter whatever Cynder threw at him.

Cynder quicken her pace around Zach, all she had to do now was wait for the right moment to attack. Cynder made two more revolutions around Zach, watching closely as he was forced to follow her with his head instead of with his body. As she got around behind Zach, he was forced to whip his head around to the other side to continue following her. She knew exactly what she had to do.

Cynder made one more revolution around Zach, waiting until just the right moment. As Cynder made it to the end of Zach's vision again, Zach was forced to snap his head around again. This was just the opportunity that Cynder was looking for.

As Zach snapped his head around, Cynder quickly changed direction, jumping and putting her self right into Zach's blind spot. As Zach finished his rotation, he was mortified to find that Cynder wasn't there any more. This feeling was short lived as Zach soon found his legs being swept out from underneath him again. Zach found himself on his back again with Cynder pouncing on him, trying to pin him to the ground.

Zach rolled out from under Cynder just as her talons dug into the soft sand. Once again Zach struggled to his feet, quickly facing Cynder who was still righting herself from her last attack. This time Cynder didn't hesitate to charge after Zach again, hoping to catch him off balance.

Cynder once again charged headlong at Zach, jumping off the ground to pounce onto Zach. Zach once again stood on his back legs, trying to uses Cynder's momentum against her.

As Zach stood on his legs, Cynder only smiled to herself, she would never make the same mistake twice. Cynder forcefully threw out her wings, giving them a forceful push foreword, practically stopping her in mid air allowing her to drop to the ground. The end result was her standing mere inches from Zach who was caught standing on his hind legs.

Zach only had time to realize what was happening before Cynder delivered a forceful blow to his chest, sending him reeling over backwards in pain. As Zach hit the ground again, he opened his eyes to find Cynder on top of him again, once again pinning him to the ground.

"Good Cynder." Terador and the other dragons walked out into the center of the ring, crowding around Cynder who was still pinning Zach to the ground. "You can get off him now Cynder."

Cynder removed herself from on top of Zach with a huff, impartial to his groans as she not to gently pushed off his chest. Zach groaned in pain as he felt his new injuries swelled up over his old ones, covering the majority of his body in a throbbing pain. As Zach attempted to roll onto his feet, his body was wracked by a fit of violent coughing, forcing him to lay still on the ground.

"Hey are you ok." Spyro walked over to Zach and pushed up against his side to help him stand to his feet. Zach used Spyro's held to roll all the way onto his feet, though he didn't attempt to stand.

"You must have really done something to piss her off, because she is angry." Zach tried to shake the specks out of his vision as he was thrown into another coughing fit.

Spyro wasn't too happy about Zach's last comment but let it slide for the moment. "Why do you say that?"

"Because she seems angry…" Zach tried to stand on his feet and groaned from the effort, eventually lowering himself back onto the ground. "And because she's not talking to anyone else right now." Zach motioned over to where Cynder was standing still in a partial battle stance, her back to the other dragons.

Zach attempted to stand to his feet again and Spyro pushed up against his side to help again. "You know Zach, she really isn't trying to hard right now. If she wanted to, she could have you on the ground after the first move."

"Yeah I know." Zach pushed off of Spyro and stumbled a few steps, but caught his balance. "I just can't help but feel that she's still really angry right now, and she's taking that anger out on me." Zach stretched out his sore body on the dry sand, thankfully not falling into another fit of coughing.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, you still have one more round to go." Zach shot Spyro a look as he grinned mischievously.

"You're kidding right?" Zach stared at Spyro as he broke into laughter. "You're not are you?" Zach let out a sigh as Spyro shook his head. Just great, now he had to do this again.

Spyro yelled back over his shoulder as he walked turned and walked towards the edge of the arena with the other guardians, "well look at it this way, you can't do any worse."

"Thanks Spyro…" Zach shook his head as he walked back to his starting position. He was mildly impressed with himself by the fact that he was still moving, he had a feeling that he normally shouldn't be able to take this much punishment.

"Are you ready for this Zach?" Zach snapped his head up to see Cynder looking at him from the opposite side of the ring, it had been the first thing she had said to him since earlier that morning. Her voice carried some traces of compassion, but most of it was anger and frustration. It sent a shiver down his spine.

"Yeah, sure…" Zach muttered under his breath as he stretched his legs out a final time. He wasn't going to be able to move as fast as he would like, but he would need every ounce of strength he could get to hold up against Cynder again, not like it would make any difference.

"Alright you two this is the last round, so make it your best." Terador once again yelled at the two dragons from the edge of the arena

Zach let out a sigh of relief until he saw Cynder smirk from across the room. If Spyro was right, which he probably was, and Cynder had been holding back, there was no reason for her to do so now.

"Begin!"

Zach was startled by the sudden start of the match, but thankfully for him, Cynder kept her distance. Zach and Cynder circled each other slowly, much like they had been doing before. Zach paid careful attention to not letting Cynder get around him like she had last time, though he knew she probably had some other trick up her sleeve.

Zach watched Cynder carefully as they circled each other. Neither of them seemed willing to make a move, though Zach knew Cynder could take him easily if she wanted to.

As the two kept circling each other, Zach was lulled into a different state of mind. His actions became more systematic, each step seemed no different than the next and he had lost track of how many times he had circled the arena. But as he lost track of his actions, his mind focused on other things.

He thoughts wandered to his home… his real home. What was happening there, did everyone think he was dead?

Zach quickly forced the thoughts out of his head and centered himself back on the battle. It was best not to think about it at the moment, he couldn't stand to think about what his friends and family might be going through.

Zach focused back onto Cynder. It was amazing that she hadn't tried something by now, they had been circling each other for almost three minutes. But her lack of action only meant that she was planing something and Zach knew it. Her face carried a look of cold determination, as she circled him. She was in this one hundred percent, and that only meant more pain for him in the long run.

But behind the determination and the incredible fighting skills, behind the cold looks and the seeming lack of compassion, Zach knew there was something else going on. Every time they circled so Zach had his back to Spyro, he could see Cynder's eyes flick off of him for only a moment. But in that moment, Zach could see so much more that she could have told him. He was never any good at understanding emotions, especially from someone of the opposite sex, but her emotions seemed so raw in that single moment that Zach knew what he was looking at.

Mixed in with the anger and determination, hidden behind the calm and collected appearance, there was more. He could see it every time, a look of sadness, a look of regret, but most of all, a look of longing.

It scared him that he could pick up on her emotions like that, especially in the middle of a sparring match. Part of him wanted him to be wrong, to know that he could never see someone like that, never understand what was going on inside their head, but the other part knew that he was right, that his mind was only confirming something he already knew.

Zach's mind slowly focused back on the fight at hand. If something didn't happen soon, he was going to drop over from sheer exhaustion. Circling around Cynder wasn't going to get him anywhere. It would be stupid, but he was probably going to have to make the first move.

Zach watched for an opportunity to strike, but Cynder was an experienced fighter always keeping her focus on her opened, her body squared and ready to move. It was a hopeless endeavor. Cynder was faster and had more experience than him, sure he had confirmed that he had slightly more power than she had, but it wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Zach slowly made up his mind. It wasn't exactly anything resembling a plan, and he wasn't thinking more than two steps into what would happen, but his legs were beginning to give out from underneath him.

Zach waited once again until he had his back to Spyro, waiting for the subtle shift of Cynder's attention. The second her saw her eye's flicker, Zach made his move. Dashing from the outside of the circle, Zach made his way straight for Cynder. As Zach closed the gap between them, he watched Cynder's reaction. As Cynder focused back on Zach, he expression changed to a look of worry and surprise, only to be replaced moments later by a smug look of confidence.

Zach's brain only had moments to comprehend her reaction before he would reach her. A feeling of dread overcame him as he watched a smug smile cross her face, she had been waiting for him, and he had walked right into it. he couldn't turn around now, his momentum would carry him too far, and even if he did stop in time, he would be at the mercy of Cynder again. Neither seemed like a good option to him.

As he covered the last two steps towards Cynder, Zach glanced at her stance. Her legs we bent and ready to spring, her wings spread out behind her, and her tail held perfectly still level to the ground. She was just going to jump out of the way, something Zach knew she could easily do.

An idea flickered though Zach's mind and he immediately grabbed onto it. it might not end well, but anything would be better than what would happen if he kept running.

Making the split second decision, Zach threw his body off to the side, rolling his body over so he was sliding on his side with his feet facing Cynder. As he threw himself off to the side, Cynder moved as well, jumping away from where she thought Zach was going, only to end up closer to Zach then when she started. As Zach slid across the sandy ground he lashed out with his tail, catching all four of Cynder's feet and tossing her to the ground.

Seizing the only opportunity he was likely to get, Zach dug his two feet closest to the ground into the sand, anchoring them and using his momentum to stand himself up only feet away from Cynder. Not thinking twice about his options, Zach threw himself at Cynder as she was getting off the ground, landing on top of her and sending the two spiraling across the ground.

Zach quickly wrapped his arms around Cynder and pulled her close to his body, if he could keep her close to his body, she would lose her sped advantage and he could use his weight. Cynder clawed, pushed, and kicked with bother her fore feet and her hind feet, trying to push off of Zach and get free while still trying to wrestle on top of him.

Zach continued to struggle and though he was gaining some kind of an advantage until he felt something hard slap across on of his hands, bending it the wring direction and quite possibly breaking it. Zach risked a glance off to the side to see Cynder's tail waving back and forth, ready to come back in and strike again.

Zach mentally scolded himself, he had completely forgotten about that significant body part, and Cynder was using it with lethal effectiveness.

As Cynder's talons continued to scrap again his chest scales Zach saw Cynder reach back with her tail for another strike. Zach quickly rolled towards her tail, pulling Cynder overtop of him. Zach felt a sharp pain shoot through his wrist and it moved and crunched underneath their combined weight, if it wasn't broken before, it was now.

As the two dragons struggled on the ground, Zach tried to gain the upper hand, slowly trying to subdue Cynder. Remembering that he had a tail to use as well, Zach Caught Cynder's tail with the forked end of his tail and drove it into the ground, pinning Cynder's tail to the ground in the process.

Cynder continued to kick off against Zach chest and stomach, slowly working her way out of his grip.

Zach was beginning to feel the strain of putting up a fight against Cynder so long. His chest was throbbing from where Cynder was constantly battering against it and hold on Cynder was loosening dye to his broken wrist.

At last Cynder gave another strong kick and launched Zach off of her, sending him over her head and onto his back with their heads facing each other. Zach struggled to his feet, cringing in pain when he put to much pressure on his wrist. Balancing on three feet, Zach looked across at Cynder who was standing only a few feet away from him. She was covered in dirt and was panting heavily, an image Zach imagined he was mirroring himself, but she also had the familiar cold determination in his eyes.

Before he had time to react Cynder was on him, throwing a strong elbow into his uninjured forearm knocking it out from under him and sending him onto his face. She quickly followed by lashing he tail across his side, cutting into some of his scales along his back and sending him rolling across the ground.

Zach tried to stand to his feet, but Cynder was on him again in an instant, wrapping her tail around his and somehow thawing him up into the air.

Zach had a moment to wonder how Cynder had managed to throw him a good ten feet into the air before he say Cynder pump he wings once and shoot up after him, somersaulting in the air to bring her tail down across his back, sending him back down into the ground.

Zach hit the ground with a dull thud, sending up a cloud of dirt and dust around him concealing him from view. Cynder landed a few feet away, flapping her wings a few times to land gracefully on the ground while clearing the dust form around Zach. Cynder then casually walked over and placed a talon on Zach's moaning but still conscious body.

"Alright Cynder I think you've made you point, that's enough." Terador and the other guardians walked slowly into the arena over to the small crater Zach had made in the sand.

Zach moaned again and rolled his body slightly. Every bone in his body hurt from the impact, but nothing seemed broken and by how the other dragons were reacting, he must not be in any real danger. Zach cracked his eyes open only to feel dust fall down from his forehead and into his eyes. Rubbing reaching up with his good arm, Zach rubbed at his face to try and get rid of the dust, but his arm was covered in dirt as well making matters worse.

"Here let me help with that."

Zach turned towards the source of the voice and received a jet of cool most air against his face, clearing out his eyes and washing most of the dirt off his face, leaving dark brown streaks down his face. Zach opened his mouth to thank whoever had done it only to find that he had swallowed mouthfuls of dirt as well.

Zach coughed and gagged on the dirt in hies throat, attempting to spit it out in a series of hacks and sputters. After a moment, Zach felt a pressure on his side, forcing him to stand up onto his feet, though he took pains to make sure he didn't put any pressure on his injured foot. Slowly, Zach felt himself being led away from the center of the arena, the voices of the guardians and Cynder fading away to a silent murmur.

Still coughing, Zach cracked open his watering eyes to see Spyro next to him leading him towards some water off to the side of the arena. He quickly broke away from Spyro's support and hobbled the rest of the way to the water, quickly plunging his muzzle in and taking greedy draughts from the cool water.

Zach drank until his lugs cried out for air again, raising his head back up and causing another fit of coughing.

"Hey now, slow down a little…" Spyro walked up next to Zach and gave him a concerned look.

Zach quickly took another mouthful of water and swished it around his mouth before spiting it back onto the ground a few feet away. Taking deep breaths, Zach calmed himself and steadied himself before turning back to Spyro. "I'll be fine, I just ate a few mouthfuls of dirt when I hit the ground back there." Zach glanced over his shoulder at the miniature crater in the sand.

Spyro chuckled slightly, "yeah… that looked like a nasty fall you took there…"

"Yeah… well your girlfriend hits pretty hard." Zach raised his injured wrist and tried to rotate it, but stopped as pain rippled through his body again.

Spyro startled slightly but continued as if nothing had happened. "Ow… that looks pretty nasty. Hey Terador! You might want to look at this." Spyro waved the earth guardian over to look at Zach's wrist.

Terador nodded and said one last thing to Cynder before lumbering over to the two younger dragons. "What seems to be the problem?"

Zach only raised his wrist in response, slight swelling already showing.

"Ah I see, but I am not the best person to consult on this, perhaps Volteer could better examine your injury." Terador quickly walked back to the other guardians before returning with all of the in tow, Cyril and Cynder slightly behind Volteer and Terador.

Volteer said nothing as he sat down next to Zach, reaching up with a talon and prodding at Zach's injury. Zach pulled back each time Volteer made contact with his injured arm, glaring at Volteer the whole time.

"Did this happen when you hit the ground Zach?" Terador questioned Zach, though he looked over at Cynder as he said it. Cynder shrank back a step under his gaze.

"No, I think my wrist was broken before I hit the ground like a ton of bricks." Zach replied with a slight edge to his voice, looking over at Cynder as well.

"Well there's not much we can do about it now." Terador let out a sigh and turned back to Volteer. "Volteer, what do you think?"

"Here, we'll have to set this and wrap it. You mustn't move a sprained or broken limb you know it inhibits the healing process." Volteer jabbered away as he examined Zach broken limb, occasionally prodding it and causing Zach to jerk back and cringe.

"Cyril, would you mind going and getting some bandages, Volteer and I will set Zach's wrist while you get them." Terador bent over Zach from the other side and examined his wrist as well.

Volteer prodded Zach once more and let out a low hum. "Yes, it does appear to be broken, only in one place though and it is a clean break rather than a shatter, though I don't know how you managed that. Terador, you were always better with this than I was, you will just have to set the bone here." Volteer pointed a few points out to Terador as Zach watched though his vision was beginning to blur from the pain.

"Ah… I see. Zach are you ready?" Terador turned to Zach and received a nod in reply. "All right here we go, on there. One… two… Cynder what are you doing?"

Zach turned his head to look at Cynder only to feel pain shoot though his arm and into his skull as Terador moved his bone back into place. As pain overcame his system, Zach crumpled to the ground, rolling in pain, tears forming at the edges of his eyes. He quickly felt two pairs of large hands holding him to the ground.

"Easy now Zach, we can't have you go and push that back out of place or we'll have to do it again." Terador deep gentle voice soothed Zach as he writhed in pain, though the tears were now freely flowing down his face.

"Hmm… what is this?" Volteer's surprised voice attracted everyone's attention, even Zach, who forced his blurry eyes open to look at whatever had surprised Volteer.

Much to his astonishment, it was still his broken limb that was the focus of attention, though it wasn't so much his wrist as what was going on around it. Small blue and green sparks danced along his scales and melded into his body. With each spark that entered his skin, the throbbing pain subsided a little, and as his min was cleared from the pain induced fog, a small smile crept to his face.

"I wouldn't worry about it, you might want to tell Cyril he won't need those bandages though." Zach let his head fall back onto the ground and was immediately overcome with weariness. He had forgotten just how much using his powers took out of him; he could probably sleep for a day if the guardians let him… not that they would let him.

"Ah yes, yours is a very strange power Zach." Terador watched Zach closely as he put his arm and wrist through their full range of motion with only residual amounts of pain.

Volteer stared intently at Zach as well, though for a different reason than Terador. "It seems that you body will only heal itself if everything is in its proper place, but that is probably for the better. That way you won't have to worry about something healing in the wrong position."

"Yeah…" Zach answered absent-mindedly as he stood up and put pressure on his leg. Thankfully it still held his weight, though his arm still throbbed every time he took a step. Zach took another few experimental steps, everything seemed to be in working order and the pain seemed to be subsiding.

It was a good thing his arm had healed like that, or he might be stuck in the temple for another month or two waiting for it to heal, and that would have driven him insane. But the quick heal didn't come without a price. His energy was completely drained, just keeping himself on his feet took more energy than Zach could spare, and while the pain from his arm had subsided, the rest of his body ached to the point that it was dulling his senses. He was about to fall over until he felt someone brush up beside him to keep his balance. Zach turned to see Spyro helping him along and gave the slightest nod of his head in acknowledgement.

"Alright Zach it looks like you could use some rest. Go ahead and rest for a while, but not for too long, report back here after a while." Volteer dismissed them with a wave of his paw and left quickly with the other guardians, leaving Zach dumbstruck.

Zach turned to Spyro. "They're kidding right?" To his dismay Spyro shook his head, a smile creeping around his lips.

Zach let out a low groan and his body shuddered. "They really are trying to kill me."

This brought a small chuckle from Spyro who pushed him forward slowly down the hall. "No they aren't, but I do have to say, this is far worse than what they ever put us through, well all in one day anyway."

As they were walking down the hallway, Cynder came up from behind them to match their pace beside Zach on the opposite side of Spyro.

"Hey Cynder." Zach spoke more into the ground that at Cynder, but she still nodded in acknowledgement.

"How are you feeling?" The question seemed emotionless to Zach, more like a survey that a heartfelt question.

"Ok I guess, seeing as I just got my but kicked up and down the arena." Spyro snickered at Zach's comment, but silenced himself when Cynder looked at him.

"Oh it wasn't that bad Zach." Cynder lowered his head so she could speak more evenly with Zach before picking up her pace and walking ahead of him.

"Oh really, and how is that? Why don't you explain to me how that wasn't a complete failure."

"Well to start, You fight like an earth dragon." Cynder cracked a small smile as she walked away.

"Is that a good thing?" Zach lifted his head, barely able to talk to her as he was helped down the hallway.

Cynder turned her head back around as she walked "Well… Earth dragons are known more for the mastery of their element over their incredible fighting prowess."

"So in other words… no?" Zach shot her a look.

"No its not that you're a bad fighter, your style is jut simplistic and very ground based. I'm sure, as time goes on you will change, your moves will become less blunt… so on and so forth." Cynder flicked her tail and left the two dragons alone as she walked briskly down the hall and out of sight.

"Well that was interesting…" Zach said absentmindedly, turning to Spyro, Zach could see him watch Cynder walk down the hall, his gaze fixed to the corner she had turned around.

Zach rolled his eyes. "Spyro…. Spyro you're drooling."

"Hmm… what?" Spyro shook his head slightly and raised one hand to wipe his mouth. "I am not."

"Well you might as well be after that look you were giving. You really have it out for Cynder don't you?" Zach took another shaky step forward only to have Spyro rush up to his side again.

"Oh no you don't… you really took it hard out there." Spyro grimaced slightly as he looked at the tattered state of Zach's body.

Zach noted the obvious change in subject but ignored it for now. "So on that positive note…" Zach propped himself up against Spyro as he continued walking down the hall. "How do you think I did, besides the whole getting my but kicked part."

Zach felt Spyro's chuckle shake his sided. "Yeah, Cynder will do that. She still bests me most of the time when we spar like that, though I usually at least get a hit on her."

Zach lifted his weary head long enough to glare at Spyro before letting it droop again.

"But other than that, I wouldn't say too bad. From what I hear you had no skills whatsoever this morning." Spyro looked closely at Zach, something still didn't make sense. When they had fought it was like Zach had years of experience. Either he was sandbagging his abilities now, or he was hiding something else. Either option didn't sit right in Spyro's stomach. Even with the guardians' decision to let him stay, Spyro still felt uneasy with this dragon around.

"Yeah well, let's hope that id doesn't stay like this for too long, I can't afford to keep doing this every day." Zach turned a corner having finally made it to his room. The hallways were way too long for his liking.

Zach's comment piqued Spyro's curiosity again, what was this dragon hiding? Spyro shook the idea out of his head; it would have to wait for now. "Are you ok from here?"

Zach nodded, "either I'll make it to the bed or I'll pass out on the way, but either way don't wake me up."

"Well either way get as much sleep as you can, the guardians would let you sleep for too long and you will need all the energy you can get."

"Now where have I heard that before?" Zach rolled his eyes as he thought back to the events of earlier that day. "I just don't get it though, how do they expect me to function after all of that?"

Spyro stepped though the doorway so he could speak more clearly to Zach "well they don't… not completely anyway part of what there doing is seeing how well you can handle stress and perform while exhausted."

Zach flopped onto his makeshift bed. "Well they're doing a really good job at it."

"You would be surprised at how much a short nap will help, I'm sure you'll feel better than you would expect when you wake up." Spyro stopped as he heard the muffled murmurs that was Zach's reply, he couldn't understand a word that had been said, but he knew Zach was already on the verge of sleeping.

Spyro shook his head at Zach, he had barely made it onto the bed and was now sprawled across it, he was exhausted to the point that not a muscle moved on his body as sleep overcame him. The only evidence that he was still alive was the steady rise and fall of his breathing.

But Spyro's mirth quickly faded away to be replaced by anxiety, he still didn't trust this dragon at all, not even in the slightest.

Zach flew steadily back towards the temple, each beat of his wings adding strain onto his already taxed body. He was half tempted to just land, lay down, sleep, and never go back to the temple and its crazy tasks, but he knew he really didn't have a choice. He needed their help.

Zach altered his course slightly and grumbled to himself, the guardians had long passed ridiculous in their tasks and it hadn't even been a full day yet. His "testing" had been straining in itself and then they had gone and thrown him against Cynder with no experience whatsoever. It was amazing that he was able to move at all, much yet fly. But the guardians had simply ignored that little detail and slapped another task on him the moment he woke up, or rather the moment they had come in a forcibly woken him up.

"It's just one more simple task…." Zach mimicked Cyril voice as best he could trough his heavy panting. "Just fly down the river until you find a bush with white and yellow flowers growing on it, pick on of the flowers at the base of the stem and return back here…" Zach spat as he finished recapping what the guardians had told him to do. It seemed to him like he was more on an errand than an actual "test."

Zach once again corrected his course towards the temple that he could faintly see in the distance fidgeting with the flower that he held in his hands. The thing was more trouble than it was worth. Zach didn't know how far he had flown until he finally decided that following the guardian's directions wasn't going to find him what he was looking for. It took three large loops around a section of the river and then a desperate landing in a clearing before he finally chanced upon the bush that he was looking for.

But even then his job wasn't easy, instead of the flowers being on the bush, they were inside the bush. Covered by a canopy of branches and sharp looking thorns. After much struggling, twisting, and turning, Zach found that not only were the thorns on the bush sharp, but that each flower was covered with the same kind of thorns as well. The whole thing reminded him of a rosebush, but the flowers looked nothing like them, more like daises

Once he had finally managed to wrench an undamaged flower from the middle of the bush and untangle himself, he was covered with scratched and had at least six different thorns imbedded under the scales on his hands not to mention the ones on other parts of his body.

After that he had started his trek back towards the temple, constantly readjusting the flower in his hands. Thankfully, the thorns that had embedded themselves under his scales had worked their way out while he was flying, relieving most of his pain but leaving a discomfort where they had been.

Zach looked up again to see that he had flowing remarkably close to the temple mulling over his thoughts. As the prospect of rest became apparent, his muscles throbbed and begged for rest, but Zach tired to push though as best he could. He was close now and there was no way he wasn't going to finish it. The whole thing had taken him almost two hours, and unfortunately for him, part of the guardian's task had been to see how fast he could do it. They had set up what appeared to be a stop clock before he left, telling him to hit a witch on top and place the flower in a nearby box when he got back. The whole thing irritated him.

As Zach approached the platform outside the temple, he realized that he would need to land again, and he would need all four feet to do it, meaning he would have to carry the flower in his mouth for the time being. Zach carefully moved the flower from his forepaws to his mouth, taking extra care to avoid scratching the inside of his mouth with the thorns; it tasted horrible, a mixture of rotten leaves and a thick musk assaulting the inside of his mouth causing him to gag.

As Zach tried to avoid breathing through his mouth he landed heavily on the outside platform, jolting his body and causing the flower to cut the inside of his mouth. Moving the flow to one of his hand Zach spit small amounts of blood out of his mouth from the fresh cuts, these tasks were causing much more pain than they should.

Zach breathed deeply through his mouth, his body still heaved and shook from the whole day's exertion. It still amazed him that he hadn't passed out yet. He readjusted his wings so the barbed ends partway down his wings hooked together over his back, this took some of the stain off of the muscles in his shoulder as he no longer had too keep his wings from dragging along the ground. But he didn't have much time to make himself comfortable, he still had to finish his "mission," he was being timed after all.

Zach moved quickly down the hall towards the central chamber. After all this was over he could get some rest, there was no way the guardians could push him any farther, even if they tried he would just lay down and sleep in front of them… or pass out… either option seemed plausible at the moment. Zach rounded the corner into the large central chamber silently. Looking around he could see no sign of the guardians, Spyro or Cynder, but that was good for him. using the last bit of energy that he had, Zach crossed the remaining distance to the center of the room, put the troublesome flower in the box with little care, and slammed his hand down on the timer, stooping it with a silent clunk.

But as he relaxed his body and started to settle down, Zach heard heavy footsteps coming down one of the halls. Footsteps that could only belong to one of the larger guardians.

Zach quickly bolted out of the room, turning a corned and plastering himself against the wall. If they couldn't find him, they couldn't give him another ridiculous task. After a few moments Zach heard the footsteps stop followed by Volteer's voice.

"Ah good, I see Zach found what we needed, and in a decent time too. With this I can finally finish…" the rest of his words were drowned out by Zach's irritated growl as Volteer walked away down a hall. He had been on an errand run.

Zach quickly turned back down the hallway that led to the outside of the temple, he couldn't stand to be in the building anymore, he needed to get outside on his own terms.

Zach moved as quickly as his sore body would carry him out to the balcony platform. Looking around, he couldn't see anywhere that looked to be a safe place to get away to for a while, and any place that he could see would mean that he would have to fly down to get to it… and that would mean that he would have to fly back up to the temple again, something he knew he wouldn't be able to do.

"Are you feeling better?" Zach craned his neck back around his body to see Cynder lying on the top of the temple behind him. Her wings we spread out slightly behind her and her front two feet hung over the edge slightly with her head resting between them.

"Well the thing that hurts the most right now is probably my pride or my dignity, I can't tell which." Zach turned to face Cynder, looking up at her from below. "Though my body is sore in so many places I can't think straight."

"Then what are you doing out here?" Cynder gave him a questioning glance as she gestured out with one of her wings.

"Well a few minutes ago I was completing and errand for on of the guardians, but now I'm just trying to get away from them before the give me another ridiculous task." Zach spread his wings out behind him and stretched out different parts of his body trying to loosen up.

Cynder chuckled slightly and rose to her feet. "I can't blame you, though it is nice to not have to be the one running errands for once." Cynder turned and walked away from the edge calling after Zach, "come on Zach… I know somewhere you can rest for a bit."

Zach painfully raised his wings and beat them a few times to lift of the ground and onto the roof, scrambling his feet as he reached the top of the roof to get on top of it. Cynder only turned to look at him but said nothing. After Zach had struggled to his feet, Cynder led him across the hard stone roof to a small area flanked by two of the larger towers on the temple. The two towers created a small alcove between them shaded form the elements. Cynder walked over and lay down in the center of the small space, looking intently at Zach until he came and lay beside her.

"I still don't understand how the guardians could never find us here. You can see the balcony from here and you would have to look in this direction if you were going to land here, but I guess they never though to look for us outside the temple."

Zach hummed slightly as he stretched himself out on the cool stone, panting heavily as he tried to press as much of his sore body to the cool stone as possible. His voice was barely audible as he tried to keep up a conversation up with Cynder, though his drooping eyelids and weary body made sleep a welcome prospect. "So do you and Spyro come up here often?"

"We used to… before the whole 'saving the world' thing. But as you may have figured out, we haven't had much time to relax lately. That and we haven't had to hide from the guardians with you around." Cynder laughed silently to herself, Zach's presence was really a good thing for her at the moment.

"I would think that you two would be spending more time together." Zach forced himself to stay awake, intentionally making the comment to see what Cynder was thinking.

"Yeah you would think…" Cynder trailed off as a slight breeze blew through the small alcove.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Zach settled back onto his stomach and looked over at Cynder

"What? Why do you care?" Cynder became defensive at Zach's last comment, fearful of where the conversation might lead.

"Hey… I'm just trying to help."

"Just let it go Zach… please." Cynder left the two siting in silence, neither of them wanting to start the conversation again. After a while, Zach started to drift back towards the comforts of sleep.

As they were siting in silence. Spyro walked out onto the balcony below them and took off, making a quick circle in the air before seeing Cynder and Zach on the roof and gliding back down to them. As he landed, Spyro folded his wings up neatly behind him and walked over to lie down next to Cynder, on the opposite side from Zach. "You know the guardians are looking for you, Zach?"

"Unfortunately… yes." Zach rolled onto his back as his body started to shake itself of his weariness. "Did they say what for this time?"

"No, only that they needed you for something." Spyro looked over Cynder at Zach, who was rolling back onto his stomach trying to fight off sleep.

"Even more reason for me not to go back inside right now. They can be mad at me later, but right now I need rest."

"Well you won't be able to stay out here too long, it looks like its going to rain soon." Spyro gestured up towards heavy storm clouds overhead, leaving Zach to wonder how he hadn't noticed them before.

"Crazy weather…." Zach mumbled under his breath as looked up at the sky.

A cool wind blew across the three dragons, causing each to shiver slightly. Spyro moved closer to Cynder, but Cynder mover just as far in the opposite direction, keeping herself out of contact with Spyro.

"Cynder… are you ok… something seems to be bother you." Spyro turned his head so that he was looking Cynder in the eyes.

"No, I'm fine…" Cynder answered him flatly, tough her voice was unconvincing, even to herself.

"Cynder, I can tell something is bother you… what is it." Spyro looked intently at Cynder, moving his head slightly towards hers.

"I don't know… I'm probably just hungry." Cynder broke his gaze and muttered as she looked at the ground again. She had hoped he would just leave her be.

"Well, I can get you something to eat if you want" Spyro started to stand to his feet, but Cynder was quick to stop him.

"Don't worry about it Spyro, I can get it myself later." Spyro settled back down next to Cynder, looking slightly dejected. He wanted to help her, but she didn't seem to care at the moment.

"So Zach… this has been bothering me all day…" Spyro trailed off for a moment and Zach rolled his eyes at Spyro's pitiful attempt to change the subject. "But why exactly are you here? Why are you putting up with the guardians and their crash course in training?"

Zach let out a sigh and braced himself, he knew the question would come up again eventually, but not answering it wasn't going to be any easier. "There are two reasons I can't tell you. One, I don't want to, it's private. And two, if I did tell you, the guardians wouldn't be too happy with me." Zach held up a talon as he listed each off, as if it would make his point clearer.

Spyro looked frustrated with Zach's answers but he hid it in his voice well. "Ok, but I can you at least tell us where you come from? We really don't know anything about you."

"I don't know how to answer that Spyro, those are things that I want to keep to myself." Zach turned his head away as he answered, his voice trailing off.

"But how can you expect us to trust you when we don't know a single thing about you?" The frustration broke through in Spyro's voice, his muscles tensing as he spoke.

" I don't know Spyro… I guess I can't really expect you to trust me. Especially after what happened. But I do know that I need your help, and I will have to earn your trust somehow." Zach finished and turned slowly to look back and Spyro, unsure of how he would respond.

Spyro, knowing the conversation wasn't going any farther today stood up with a huff and walked part way down the roof towards the platform.

"Cynder… please don't stay out her too long." Spyro glanced back over at Cynder who looked away from him.

"And why do you suddenly care?" Cynder's harsh retort caused Spyro to recoil before turning and heading back inside without a word, leaving Cynder and Zach alone on the roof together.

As soon as Spyro had walked out of sight Zach shot Cynder a look.

"What?" Cynder stared back at Zach, but she couldn't quite match his gaze.

"You know what" Zach's voice was harsh, but not quite angry, "that was a load of crap and you know it."

"What?" Cynder repeated herself though this time her voice was high pitched and nervous.

"Come on Cynder, I don't know what your problem with him is right now, but you need to get over it. And will you stop with this 'I don't know' crap too. You act like you don't care for him at all." Cynder could feel Zach's hard stare, but she didn't want to meet it.

"How would you know?" Cynder finally shot back at Zach, "what do you know about what we went through, what I went through… you don't know anything about me!" Cynder whirled to face Zach, putting her face inches from his, her anger hiding the tears forming in her eyes.

"Well apparently I know more about you than you do yourself, because I can see how much you love him Cynder." Zach matched her cold stare unflinchingly.

Zach's last retort left Cynder speechless, what could he know about her? But then again, why would he something like that to her face. She knew she wanted to be with Spyro more than anything, but it just wouldn't be right. She had done too many things, hurt too many people… Spyro could never love someone… something… like her.

Cynder came back with a low and unsteady voice. "Yeah well… what if I do… what does it matter anyway? Spyro could never love anyone like me, and after what he said today… it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't want me around the temple anymore… I wouldn't."

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "Is that what this is all about, why you two haven't been talking to each other?"

Cynder only kept looking away, her voice low and sorrowful. "Sort of…" Cynder risked a glance over her shoulder to see Zach looking at her intently, he wasn't going to let this one go. Cynder let out another heavy sigh before continuing. "When we talked earlier, Spyro mentioned me leaving the temple again… he said he wouldn't blame me if I did… I guess I wouldn't blame myself ether. I mean… Spyro has something going for him here, but as for me, all I have is a legacy of pain and destruction."

Zach waited a moment before answering, taking care with his words as to not discomfort her further. "Cynder, I'm sure that no one blames you for that. It wasn't your fault and Spyro and the guardians know it… it will just take some time for other people to adjust."

Cynder came back with a sharp laugh. "That's what you think, besides. You don't understand what I'm saying anyway. I could live with other people thinking I'm a monster and care less… but…"

"But you care what Spyro thinks of you…" Zach finished Cynder's sentence as she trailed off, leaving her shifting in discomfort. Her voice came back in a low whisper.

"And now he doesn't even what me around anymore…"

Zach wanted to reach out and smack some sense into Cynder, how anyone could jump from point A to B like that was beyond him. But he knew that she needed to see through this herself. Zach once again took careful aim with his voice. "Cynder, how could you think that? I think Spyro wants you around more than you realize."

Cynder came back with a snort, the frustration once again showing in her voice. "What would you know, you haven't seen him, you didn't talk with him, you haven't caused him so much sorrow, and you sure as hell haven't been chained to him for over three years. I think I would understand him."

Zach felt his voice rise as well as he shot back at Cynder. "I don't know a single thing about relationships Cynder. I have never had a girlfriend, I've never had a date, and I barely know any girls in general. But I do know one thing Cynder… you and Spyro have something going for you, it just seems that everyone else can see it but you two." Zach stared hard at Cynder and once again she couldn't meet his gaze.

Zach let the conversation drift away, leaving the two in silence again. He was tired or riding Cynder's emotional roller coaster and there wasn't much he could do for her anyway. Hopefully they could get though their difficulties together, because he didn't think anyone else would be able to help them.

The two dragons sat outside together for a short while. Zach continuing to fight off sleep while Cynder was left to her thoughts. It wasn't long before small drops of rain began to pelt the dragons. Zach looked up to see that the storm had moved overhead and was threatening to unleash a steady stream down on them. A cool wind blew across the dragons again, causing both to shiver. Zach rolled on to his stomach in an attempt to stand up and go inside while Cynder shook herself out of her thoughts and prepared to do the same.

Before either could react, a steady rain began to fall and drench the two dragons siting outside. Cynder stood up to go inside but Zach simply stretched out his wings, he loved the rain.

Zach let out a contented sigh as he let the cool water run across his scales. Rain had always had a strange affect on him, but he loved it. The icy cool that swept over his body, the fluid motion of the water running down his back, it always settled him and clamed his nerves. And the smell, he always loved the fresh sent during a rain.

Zach stretched out his wings further and marveled at them. The rain pooled in the centers of his wings before running in streams down his stays and onto the ground and the water that collected in the center of his wing membranes reflected the blue on his wings, giving them a sense of incredible depth. It was incredible.

The rain… to him it always meant something new… starting over. He couldn't help but feel it was nature's way of reinforcing his stay here. Zach took in another deep breath and held it. He could feel each stream of water running down his back and arms, cooling off his body that was weary from a hard days work.

"Are you just going to stand out here?" Cynder gave him a disgruntled look from the edge of the roof, the rain bothered her and she wanted to go in. "You'll catch a cold."

Zach sighed and shook the water off of his body, sending most of it at Cynder.

"Hey!" Zach looked to see Cynder glaring at him for the unnecessary bath he had just given her.

Zach only cracked a smile in response, walking past her on his way inside. Cynder followed quickly after, both of them dropping off the roof to the balcony below before hurrying inside.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Trial and Error

Rain slowly ran off Zach and dripped to the floor as he slowly made his way inside the temple, turning back down the hall towards the room he had been given. The hallways were dark again from the storm outside and the late hour of the day. Hopefully he wouldn't get lost looking for it this time. Zach glanced over his shoulder to see Cynder walking behind him looking as disgruntled as ever at being soaking wet. He couldn't help but crack a smile at her discomfort. He had been at the sort end of the stick all day, and it was satisfying to see someone else as uncomfortable as he was. Not that he was uncomfortable anymore, the cool rain had eased some of the pain from his sore muscles and cooled off his body.

Cynder on the other hand couldn't be any more miserable. Her wet scales combined with the sudden drop in air temperature gave her a sudden chill and she was starting too feel it thought her body. Another chill ran down her spine and Cynder shook her body, sending water droplets flying everywhere.

"Hey!"

Cynder looked over her shoulder to see Spyro standing in one of the adjacent always, wiping water off of his face. He was the last person she wanted to see at the moment.

Zach turned around from where he was standing up ahead of Cynder and made his way back towards the two, grinning as he came. Things should get interesting.

"Was that necessary?" Spyro wiped the rest of the water off with one of his claws and flung it on the ground.

"Yes…" Cynder shivered slightly as a breeze came through the temple, sending more water droplets onto the two dragons standing beside her.

"I told you it was going to rain." Spyro smirked as he looked at Cynder, though he only got a scowl in return.

"Well I wasn't half as wet until someone decided to throw water all over the place." Cynder turned her hardened scowl onto Zach, causing him to raise his head and shrink back slightly.

"Hey, this isn't my fault." Zach shot back at Cynder, trying to keep his voice steady, though Cynder's glare and Spyro's smirk made it hard to keep a strain a face. " I wasn't the one that kept you out in the rain."

Cynder's scowl only deepened as a result. Zach cringed and turned his back to them, starting to walk down the hall.

"Never mind, I didn't say anything." Spyro and Cynder watched as Zach continued down the hall, turning the wrong direction at the end of the hall and bringing a slight chuckle from Spyro.

"What's so funny?" Cynder turned her scowl onto Spyro again, causing him to laugh harder.

"Its just, Zach turned the wrong way…"

"Who cares." Cynder's cold tone caught Spyro off guard, cutting off his laughter.

"Hey… what's bothering you?" Spyro's sympathetic tone soothed Cynder, though I couldn't do nearly enough to calm her down.

"Nothing that you could understand." Cynder tried to shoot back at Spyro, but her body was beginning to shake. Shivers ran up and down her body, making her unable to stand still and causing her teeth to chatter loudly

Spyro walked up along side Cynder and draped a wing over her. He jumped as he pulled her close to him and felt how cold her sided were. She was still wet from standing outside in the rain and was shaking violently in an attempt to get dry and warm. "Cynder, you're freezing… here, lets get you warmed up a little."

"I'm fine Spyro." Cynder broke out from underneath Spyro's wing, walking briskly down the hallway towards her room. Spyro followed quickly after her. He could see she was still shaking from where he was following her. Why was she still so mad at him? He just wanted to help her, and at the moment she really needed someone to help her.

"Cynder, please…" Spyro moved quickly to move up alongside Cynder causing her to shy away slightly. "Let me help you." Spyro tied to drape his wing over her again, be she quickly moved out from under it.

"I told you Spyro, I don't need any help." Cynder moved the last few feet down the hallway and turned into her room, leaving Spyro standing at the doorway. "I can take care of myself, please just leave me alone…" Cynder's voice carried a pleading tone as her words died away before she quickly retreated into her room, leaving Spyro standing outside the curtain.

Spyro only waited a moment outside the doorway. He was going to fix this, and he was going to fix this now, whether she wanted his help or not. Spyro pushed his way through the curtain to see Cynder's back to him, her room shrouded in darkness. Earlier that day, It had seemed mysterious yet comforting, now it carried a heavy air that hung around the room, the darkness threatening to swallow any light that dared enter the room. He could barely make out Cynder's shape in the darkness.

Spyro turned towards the wall where he knew there was a fireplace, spiting a fireball that flash to life in the room before impacting against the logs. In the dim light from the new fire, Spyro watched as Cynder whirled around to face him, frustration and confusion on her face.

"I'm not leaving you here like this Cynder. You are going to get my help whether you want it or not."

Cynder walked up nose to nose with Spyro, her frustration stilling her shaking body. But after a moment, her body began to shake again and she could not meet his gaze, forcing her to look at the ground. "I told you Spyro, I don't want you help and I don't need your help."

Spyro continued to hold his ground, and when Cynder forced herself to look up again, his gaze caught her. It was firm and compelling, but not demanding. He was telling her exactly what his intentions were, but he was not forking them upon her. Cynder was forced to avert her gaze again and grudgingly moved towards her bed near the fire, wordlessly allowing Spyro to stay. Had it been any other dragon, she would have had them on the ground and out the door in a heartbeat, but with Spyro… Cynder shook her head as she felt her heat flutter. If it had been anyone else… but it wasn't. It was Spyro.

"Here… let me try something…" Spyro carefully made his way over next to Cynder, standing next to her bad. Cynder kept her head turned away from him, looking into the fire. Just because he was going to help her didn't mean she had to like it.

Cynder jerked as she felt a jet of hot air splash against her back. Turning her head around, she could see Spyro breathing a jet of warm air directly across her back. Cynder quickly relaxed her tensed muscled and allowed Spyro's hot breath to dry off her scales and massage her tense muscles.

Spyro slowly made his way from the base of Cynder's tail up her back, taking pains to make sure he didn't scald her and that he covered every inch of her body. It may have been overzealous work, but the way she had been shaking a few minutes ago had worried him and it wasn't that much extra work.

As Spyro moved to the area between Cynder's shoulder blades, Cynder stretched her wings out from her body, allowing Spyro to move down each with his warm massage. As Spyro reached her second wingtip and moved back to her shoulders, Cynder let out a low hum. Spyro sure knew how to do this right.

Unfortunately for her, Spyro soon stopped, leaving the two in silence. Cynder rolled onto her side so her stomach was facing the fire, providing some warmth, though she shivered as a draft wafted though her room. Her voice was low and quiet as she turned her head to face Spyro. "Thank you Spyro… I should be fine now…"

"I don't think so." Spyro chuckled slightly as Cynder shivered again against the cool evening air. "I said I wasn't going to leave you and I meant it. Besides, I can have you getting sick."

"Spyro…."

"No, I am not leaving you here like this." As if to emphasize his point, Spyro laid down next to Cynder, moving to press his warm sides against hers. Cynder shifted uncomfortably at the contact, catching her breath as she felt Spyro drape one of his wings over her.

"You were the one who decided to stay out in that rain, now you have to deal with it." Spyro's voice carried a matter of fact tone, causing Cynder to smile, though she carefully hid it from Spyro.

As the warmth from Spyro's breath wore off Cynder began to shiver again, though more violently as a second chill ran though her body. Spyro noticed and tightened his embrace around Cynder, curling up around her to keep her as warm as possible.

Cynder was having trouble keeping her face from turning red. Part of it was from the embarrassment of having to be treated like this and by Spyro none the less. But part of it was frustration as well, she couldn't get what Spyro had said earlier out of her head and now he was treating her like this. She just couldn't understand it, and the dragon next to her wasn't making things any easier.

"I'm not going to leave you Cynder." Cynder caught her breath as Spyro's whisper came to her ears, he had moved so his head was lying directly behind hers. Was he going to say more? Was he going to do something else? Cynder's heart pounded in her ears as she waited next to Spyro, but all she heard was his deep breathing next to her.

After a few more tense moments, Cynder worked up the courage to open her mouth, though her voice only came out in a whisper. "Thanks Spyro… for everything."

Cynder's words quickly faded away into the darkness leaving both dragons to the sounds of their breathing. As her chills calmed down as well, Cynder became drowsy from the heat of the fire and of the dragon beside her. Slowly closing her eyes, Cynder smiled inwardly at how things were, if only for a moment.

Spyro rested silently beside her, numerous thoughts running though his head. He hadn't quite expected to end up lying next to Cynder again. All the thoughts and feelings that had occurred to him a few nights ago at Warfang returned to him, though this time with more intensity. Was it really right for him to be so close to her while she was sleeping. Sure they had done it numerous times when they had traveled together, but this was different. They were not just sleeping near each other because of necessity, they were sleeping against each other because of their choice, granted he was doing this partially to keep Cynder warm. But it was still different, he didn't have to be here and Cynder hadn't objected to it…

Spyro smiled to himself. She had objected to it, but she hadn't refused to allow him near her and she didn't protest when he lay next to her. Maybe she was ok with it.

Spyro ruffled his wing to cover more of Cynder's body. Regardless of what he was thinking she needed him right now, and not just because of the cold. All the things she had gone though… he didn't know how she could go through each day. He knew that she had reconciled herself with her past, but other people still hadn't. In those brief moments he had been around other people in the last few days he had seen it. That look of fear, the look of hatred in their eyes when they looked at her. She needed someone to care for her, and he was going to be that person whether she wanted him to or not.

Spyro raised his head slightly to look down at Cynder's face. Here eyes were closed peacefully in sleep and he could hear the soft sounds of her breathing. What little light that came from the fire glinted off the jeweled marks on her forehead and ivory horns. Spyro caught himself staring and quickly looked away, his face turning red and his heart caught in his throat.

He wanted to be so much more than a friend to her. He wanted to always be there for her, no matter what other people were saying. And he knew what he was feeling… he knew why he was feeling like this. He knew why every time he came close to her he couldn't help but stare at her. He knew why being so close to her could mean so much more than just keeping someone else warm. He wanted to be with her.

Spyro raised his head, once again looking at Cynder's peaceful face. If only he could gain the courage to say it to her. He had fought through countless enemies, fought a deranged all-powerful dragon, and pulled together a word that was falling to pieces, but he couldn't tell her. Spyro let out a heavy sigh, allowing his head to rest on the bed next to Cynder's, his voice coming out in a less than audible whisper. "I would do anything for you Cynder."

"You must have known that this would happen eventually, you could see it in their eyes the moment they were back together." Cyril spoke softly to the other guardians standing outside of Cynder room, all three looking back on the two dragons inside.

"Yes, I know Cyril, but it doesn't make the situation any easier." Terrador kept his voice low ass well trying not to disturb Spyro and Cynder. "We will have to talk to them about this sometime soon.:

"Terador, you know the probability of talking to them changing their minds is about as good as…"

"Yes Volteer I know," Terrador quickly cut into the conversation to keep Volteer's voice from raising. "And its not that I want them to change their minds, but perhaps… well I don't know. I don't suppose there is much we can do about this anyway."

"Can't do much about what?" All three guardians turned to see Zach walking down the hallway towards them, still dripping wet.

"Ah Zach, there you are, we have been looking for you." Cyril spoke up first, walking towards Zach.

"Yeah about that… I was actually just looking for my room, I was hoping to get some sleep." Zach carefully made his way towards the guardians, looking through Volteer and Terrador to she what they were looking at, laughing as soon as he realized what he was looking at.

"And what do you think is so funny young dragon?" Terrador's deep voice cut into Zach's laughter, stifling it but not cutting it off completely.

"I wouldn't worry about them too much right now. I don't think they even know what their doing right now." Zach continued laughing to himself until Terrador stepped directly in front of him, his imposing figure cutting off his laughter completely.

"We'll see about that. Cyril, please take this young dragon back to his room, he has much to do tomorrow."

Zach only groaned as Cyril led him off down the hallway.

Zach pounded away against the wooden dummy coming at him. Each blow the dummy thew at him harmlessly bounced off of Zach's arms and tail if they weren't sidestepped completely. Zach ducked and wove thought the tangled mass of the wooden dummies limbs with relative ease. It was attacking in a set pattern making predicting its movements easy. All he needed to do was counter or dodge correctly. Terrador had given him the task nearly an hour ago and he was still at it, but it didn't bother him. All the time he had to himself gave him time to think and he had no need to focus on the attacks of the dummy.

Zach smiled slightly at the thought. He figured Terrador must have had that in mind when he sent him out to train. If he could react without thinking, it would be one more thing he would have to worry about during an actual fight.

Zach felt a chill run down his spine and was forced to turn his focus back to the dummy as it landed an exceptionally hard blow against Zach due to a bad block. If he kept getting careless he would have huge bruises to deal with later, not that he didn't have bruises already. Many speckled his arms, legs, and stomach turning his normally white scales ugly shades of gray. Besides the obvious discomfort they caused him, his bruises worried him as well. Even in the short time he had been able to use what little power he had he had gotten used to it and since his injuries were not healing over it gave him the sense that something was wrong. Yet with how tired he was waking up each morning, it might simply be because of his lack of energy.

Zach grunted as he parried the wooden dummy with his tail blade, his frustration adding to his strength. He had been at the temple a full week since the first day of his training. Each time he mentioned something to the guardians about leaving they simply said, "not yet" or "we'll see." It was beginning to get on his nerves. And it wasn't even that Spyro wasn't ready either. He had been up around the temple like what Zach could only assume to be his normal self after two days.

Zach tried to ignore Spyro. Its not that he didn't like him, but his behavior always confused him and he had the sneaking suspicion that Spyro still didn't trust him. each time Zach walked into the room he could see Spyro tense slightly and often he would leave the room as soon as Zach entered.

The guardians weren't much of a help either. When they weren't running him ragged with their fast track "training" they were talking with each other or trying to talk to Zach about some history thing or "how they were like at his age…" he just tried to ignore them whenever possible.

The one person he could stand was Cynder. He knew she didn't trust him fully yet, but she was straightforward instead of trying to hide it like everyone else. But even with their loose bond of trust, Zach found he could enjoy himself around her. She seemed to understand him more than anyone else, and Zach couldn't help but feel that it was because of what they had done… what he had done.

Zach growled in pain as the dummy cuffed him along the side of his head with one of its limbs. He was getting distracted again, and the now throbbing pain in the side of his head was making things worse. Zach tried to jump back to give himself more room from his opponent but the dummy swept under his legs, knocking him to the ground. Frustrated, Zach rolled to the side before springing to his feet and swinging his tail around to parry a blow with a loud crack.

Zach took the opportunity to settle back into his mindless routine, but his anger began to flare at the back of his mind. Why was he here anyway? He didn't want to be here and nothing good had come of it so far. All he had managed to do was almost get someone killed, get himself caught, then almost kill someone. Its not like he was here for a purpose, all he wanted to do was get this farce over with and go back home so he could sleep.

Home… he wondered how his family was doing without him. Were they looking for him? Did time even travel at the same rate in this world as it did in his? Heck, was this even real? Sure, if it was a dream he would have woken up by now, but what if he was in a coma and this was his minds sick way to cope?

Zach was to engrossed in his thoughts and his combat with the dummy that he didn't see Spyro walk into the room across from him. "Alright, the guardians sent me to tell you that you could be done for the day, apparently they have something planned."

Zach looked up at the sound of Spyro's voice only to get caught across the face by the flailing arms of the wooden dummy. After catching himself, Zach spun around with his tail one time bringing it down diagonally across the midsection of the dummy and cutting it clean in two.

The dummy clattered to the ground before disappearing in a cloud of dust much to Zach's amusement.

"Man I really hate those things." Zach mumbled as he wiped one of his hands across his mouth, checking for blood.

Spyro stifled a laugh before he spoke, "yeah they can be a real pain, if you know what I mean…"

"Ha ha, very funny Spyro." Zach walked over to the side of the room where a bucket of water was waiting, taking long draughts before turning back around to face Spyro.

"You're up early, usually I don't see you around until well after the sun comes up." Zach motioned over his shoulder out a window where the first rays of sun were appearing over the horizon. The guardian's routine had him waking up well before dawn, something that Zach still hadn't quite coped with.

"Yeah, well apparently they are all going out for something and the need us to tag along." Spyro opened his mouth with a loud yawn before wiping his face to get rid of the obvious signs of sleep.

"Sounds like fun…" Zach stared absent mindedly out the window until Spyro spoke up again.

"so how is your training going? I've seen you practicing combat almost every day but I haven't seen what you can do with your element yet. So tell me, what can you do?"

Zach laughed in spite of himself, "I think you know all that I can do. As of today all I know of my powers is that I can hide myself from sight for a short while and I can mend minor injuries, but other than that, I've got nothing."

Spyro raised an eyebrow. "That's it? I saw you use way more that that when we… well you know… can you use any of that."

Zach shook his head, thankful that Spyro had tried to avoid the subject. It was something that neither of them brought up though Zach suspected it was for different reasons. "I barely remember anything from that time Spyro, and what I do remember isn't pleasant, but I do think I know what you're talking about. Unfortunately I haven't been able to replicate it, I think it was an affect the collar had on me." Zach ran a talon along the base of his neck reassuring himself that it wasn't there.

Spyro nodded, "it wouldn't surprise me, dark magic has strange affects, and they usually aren't pleasant." Spyro moved around to Zach side. "so you haven't developed anything new?"

"Nope, the guardians pretty much gave up on me developing anything new so they've devoted all of my time to combat."

"Speaking of combat, you looked a little out of it there at the end, you have something on your mind?"

Zach shook himself out of his daze, "Nah, just got a little lost in though, thinking about home…" Zach cringed as soon as he realized what he had said. Spyro had been trying to find out things about Zach for the past week, subtly sneaking the questions into normal conversations trying to catch Zach off guard. It wasn't that Zach didn't want to answer Spyro, but he didn't quite know how to answer. What was he supposed to say? That he came from a completely different world and that he wasn't a dragon but was in fact a creature that Spyro had probably never heard of? If he had gained any trust by now telling them would completely ruin it, though he knew holding it from them would be more harmful in the long run if they ever found out. He was hoping that he would be back home before that ever happened.

"Home huh…" Spyro looked at Zach, though his expression carried a wistful expression. "You really want to get back don't you?"

"Yeah, the only problem is that I don't quite know how…" Zach was digging himself a deeper hole, but he figured it would be worse if he didn't answer Spyro at all. "That's kind of why I need your help, otherwise I really wouldn't be here."

"How do you not know how to get back home? Can't you just follow the way you took to get here?" Zach could hear the rising irritation in Spyro's voice. "And why do you need my help? Why is it that you're still here? What could be so important that you and the guardians need me for but I can't know about?"

"Spyro, believe me, if I could tell you I would, but…"

"But what? 'Its not your place to tell me', or 'it will all make sense in time' or 'some things are never certain'. I am tired of being used, I am tired or other people telling me what I am supposed to do. My whole life up to this point has been one thing after another. I finally get a break and it last less than a day until you show up and ruin everything." Spyro's voice rose until it became a low growl.

"Hey, don't blame this on me." Zach shouted back at Spyro, his weary body lowering into a defensive stance. "I already told you, as soon as I figure out how to get home, I am out of here. But unfortunately I cant do that without you whether I like it or not." Zach chose not to bring up the events of the past, even though Spyro was tearing at his emotional wounds, pushing him further wasn't something Zach wanted to do.

"Ok then Zach, why don't we get this over with. What is it that you need me to do? What is keeping you around the temple and in my life? What can I do to get you out of here?" Spyro slowly approached Zach, moving so his face was only inches from Zach's.

"If it were that simple I would tell you, but right now I can't. The guardians have told me to keep to myself until they think you are ready to hear it. And even then, you would have to believe what I said as well, something I'm not sure you would do at the moment." Zach matched Spyro's gaze, not breaking it until both of them head footsteps coming down one of the adjoining hallways. Both dragons turned to see Cynder walk into the room, a concerned look on her face when she saw the two dragons facing off.

Spyro quickly settled down and walked over to Cynder, Zach a few paces behind careful to keep his distance. Spyro made a mental note to bring it up with Zach again later.

Cynder spoke to both of the approaching male dragons, her voice low and controlled as she looked at both dragons in concern. "Terador sent me to make sure you two made it to the balcony on time, they want to leave soon, as in right now."

Spyro nodded in thanks and continues past Cynder, tension in every step he took. Zach let out a deep breath as he passed Cynder, thanking her as well.

Cynder turned and followed both dragons back up the hallway, her heart sinking in her chest. She had come hoping to catch some alone time with Spyro. She had wanted to apologize, for the way she had treated him a few days ago, but every time she could get close to him, someone else would always show up in the room or send one of them off on an errand, making talking to Spyro personally impossible. She desperately wanted to talk to him, having him warped around her that night was something she couldn't get out of her head. Regardless of what he said, she had to talk to him… about a lot of things.

Cynder looked up ahead at the purple dragon in front of her, he seemed to have calmed down and was now walking with his head bowed towards the floor. Cynder quickened her pace and passed Zach to walk along side him. From what she had heard the guardians talking about, this might be the last chance she could get to talk with him alone for a while. Well alone except for Zach, but he wasn't paying attention, his gaze riveted on the stone beneath his feet.

"Spyro…" Cynder voice was low, barely audible to Spyro who was standing a few feet away from her. He didn't acknowledge Cynder in any way, but Cynder worked up the courage to continue. "Spyro I'm sorry about what happened…. It's just… I don't want to leave the temple Spyro…"

Spyro's head snapped up and turned to Cynder. "Who said that you had to leave the temple?" Concern and anger rimed his voice.

Cynder turned her head away from Spyro so he couldn't see her expression. "A few days ago… you said that I didn't have to stay here, that there were other places I could go…"

Spyro cut around in front of Cynder, stopping her and forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Cynder I didn't mean it like that… I just didn't want you to feel like you were being forced to stay here…" Spyro turned his head away as blood rushed to his cheeks, his voice coming out softer as he kept his head turned away from Cynder. "I wish you would stay here…"

Cynder smiled slightly as she felt her cheeks warm as well. Pushing her head underneath Spyro's she hummed slightly before answering, "I would be more than happy to Spyro."

Spyro smiled and rubbed his chin against the top of Cynder's head. All the anxiousness around Cynder for the past week seemed to melt away. She would stay with them… with him for a while longer. And he was beginning to be sure of the reason why.

Spyro nuzzled Cynder one more time before removing himself from her embrace and walking down the hall whispering for her to follow. "Come on Cynder, I'm sure the guardians are getting impatient."

Cynder quickly followed, putting herself closer to Spyro's side then she had ever dared before nearly letting their sides touch. She could feel the heat radiating off of his body and it made it tempting not to push up against his body, but she felt the too familiar felling of worry wash over her again. Their quick conversation had been reassuring but she needed to be absolutely sure, she needed to talk to him again when they were completely alone and had the time to do it.

Zach, who had watched the entire episode after almost running into Cynder, smiled to himself as well. It was about time those two made progress, he was beginning to wonder if they were going to spend the rest of their lives awkwardly avoiding each other. Hopefully this would distract Spyro long enough to get home without any more questioning or confrontation.

Zach squinted as he walked out onto the balcony where the guardians were waiting. The rising sun was just over the horizon and was shinning directly in Zach eyes as he walked out onto the platform making it hard for him to see. He quickly made his way over to the side of the balcony so he wasn't looking directly into the sun. Spyro and Cynder sat in front of him siting unusually close to each other, Spyro's tail wrapped ever so slightly around Cynder, though she probably didn't notice.

The guardians were siting opposite them, once again all talking to each other in their own private conversation forcing the three younger dragons to wait patiently for them to finish. After the sun was a good distance over the horizon, the guardians turned and faced Zach, Spyro and Cynder, each with a sly grin on their faces.

Terador was the first to speak. "Alright you three, the time has come to gather the candidates for the next fire guardians."

Zach shook himself out of his stupor and Spyro bolted upright while Cynder's mouth hung slightly open. They had heard the guardians talking about it before but they didn't think that the trials would come for a few more months at the least.

Spyro was the first one to speak. "Terador, I thought you said that you were not going to start the trials for a few more months…"

Cyril spoke up from behind Terador… "Well a few things influenced our decision actually. We cannot wit too long to chose another guardians for it leaves a hole in our ranks and at this point in time we have the three of you to help with the trials."

"Wait. What?" Zach became immensely interested at Cyril last reason.

"Well we can't run the trials by ourselves you know, and we always need someone to spar against the candidates that we can use as a base line."

Zach grounded and ran a hand over his face while Spyro and Cynder shared a grin.

Volteer spoke up to address Cyril, "aren't you forgetting about the recent troubles in the land, we may need the next guardians to help fight…"

"That's enough Cyril thank you…" Terador glanced back over his shoulder at the three young dragons as he silenced Cyril. Spyro gave him a concerned look but said nothing. Satisfied Terador continued. "As I said, the time has come for the trials. We guardians are going out to collect the six candidates. Cyril and Volteer will go get three of the candidates from the surrounding villages while you three will go with me and collect the other three from Warfang."

Zach was now the one who broke into the conversation. "Why not send one of us with each of you instead of taking us all to Warfang?"

Cyril turned to address Zach, "we don't want to cause to much commotion with this, very few people know of the location of this temple and we would like to keep it that way. Any of you three in a small village would arouse attention that we don't need while an old dragon that no one recognizes will not draw attention at all. And besides, we can't just leave you all here can we?" Cyril looked directly at Spyro and Cynder as he finished.

Terador spoke up again, irritation in his voice. "You are less likely to be noticed in Warfang, though Spyro's achievements are now know well throughout the city and that may cause a problem. We must keep a low profile either way." Terador looked over the three younger dragons. "It should be good for you to get out of the temple anyway. We can't have you cooped up at the temple all the time."

"So a trip to Warfang it is then." Zach stood and stretched himself out. His wings already seeming to hurt from anticipation of the long flight.

"Yes, well we all should be off before it gets too late in the day." Cyril stood to his feet and turned towards the outside of the platform

"I agree Cyril, we all have a long flight ahead of us." Volteer stood up as well, facing a different direction.

"Well then, I suppose I will see you all later, good luck, and may the ancestors watch over you." Terador watched as Cyril and Volteer launched off the platform, each taking a different direction.

Terador watched them go for a moment before turning back to face Spyro and Cynder. "Well then, there is no time like the present. Are you ready to go?"

Spyro and Cynder both nodded and stood to their feet. Zach only groaned and walked over to join the other dragons. "I'm as ready as I will ever be."

"Alright then, lets go." Without another word Terador launched himself off the platform, turning and heading towards the city of Warfang. Spyro and Cynder followed quickly after, Spyro bumping Cynder with his tail as he took off earning him an irritated look. Zach took a moment before launching himself after them, the abruptness of their departure had taken him by surprise but it looked like they knew what they were doing.

"Its not like I have anything better to do…" Zach muttered to himself as he pounded his wings in an attempt to catch up to Spyro and the others. The endurance flights the guardians had forced him through for the past week hopefully prepared him to make the journey again, he wasn't sure how he had made it there the first time.

Zach quickly caught up to the others dropping in alongside Cynder as they flew through the air. Zach quickly found that he could coast behind Terador without losing any altitude. Keeping his wings spread to their fullest extent, Zach banked his body slightly so his wingtip brushed against Cynder's, catching her attention. As Cynder glanced in his direction Zach shot her a quizzical look.

"What?" Cynder shouted over the rushing wind and the powerful beats of Terador's wings

"Why is this so… I don't know… easy?" Zach shouted back.

Cynder gave him a confused look before a look of recognition crossed her face. "Oh, you haven't ever flown in a group have you? Terador breaks through the air in front of us and creates a slight updraft, making it considerably easier for us to fly behind him. Since he's considerably older and this is only a short trip he will probably stay up front the whole time." Cynder finished with a nod, pumping her wings a few times to catch up to Spyro who was in front of her.

Zach hung back and let his mind drift. If this wasn't a long flight he wonder what a long flight was.

Spyro was jostled out of his thoughts by a gust of wind, forcing him to pay attention long enough to right himself. They were probably halfway though their flight to Warfang by now, each of them secluded with their own thoughts. He had tried to talk to Cynder during the first part of their flight, but the roaring wing and the constant shouting made conversation nearly impossible so they had given it up after a few sentences.

Spyro now found himself flying directly behind Cynder and his thoughts were now completely consumed by her. He couldn't help but notice how graceful she was in flight, each beat of her wings gently changing the contours of her body. The brief conversation he had with her before they left still burned in his mind. It had calmed many of his anxieties, but it had raised so many more. He wanted nothing more at the moment than to talk to her. There were so many things he needed answers to.

Spyro glanced down at the scenery below them. Trees still covered the ground while a river weaved in and out through large clearings on the ground below.

A grin crossed Spyro's face as a plan formed in his mind. It had been a while since he had been out flying and his wings were becoming restless. Without thinking twice Spyro shot forward through the air quickly positioning himself overtop of Cynder. Cynder only had time to turn her head towards Spyro before he dropped down on top of her pinning her wings to her sides.

Cynder squealed as she dropped out of the sky, unable to control her decent with Spyro on her back. "Spyro what are you doing!"

Spyro let out a full-hearted laugh as he angled them deeper into a dive.

"Spyro!" Cynder watched as the ground came closer, though she felt no worry as Spyro kept his arms wrapped around her, his laughter carrying over to her.

Spyro just ignored her, flaring his wings to angle his decent towards the river that was running below them. Flaring his wings out to their full extent, Spyro leveled out only feet above the river gliding along the path of the river still holding Cynder close to his chest.

Cynder finally stopped struggling against Spyro's grip and let herself relax, enjoying the feeling of Spyro pressed against her back.

Spyro continued his glide along the path of the river, using his speed to keep himself in the air without beating his wings or jostling Cynder. She had stopped struggling against him and was now pressing herself further up into his chest. Spyro leaned down and nuzzled Cynder's neck, earning him a contented sigh. Spyro turned his head slightly so he could talk to Cynder. "Are you ready?" a smile slowly spread across his face.

"Ready for what?" Cynder turned her head around and rubbed her head underneath Spyro's chin.

Spyro's grin spread further across his mouth. "You might want to hold your breath." Before Cynder had a chance to answer Spyro rolled onto his back and pulled in his wings plunging into the cold water below them dragging Cynder with him.

As soon they hit the water, Spyro let go of Cynder, feeling her turn around and push of his body in an attempt to get to the surface. Spyro stayed under for a few moments, using his wings to propel himself under the water away from Cynder. He wouldn't want to be next to her when she came up.

Spyro broke the surface of the water a few feet from Cynder, a smile plastered on his face. Cynder on the other hand, was not happy with her sudden bath and was glaring at Spyro. When Spyro caught Cynder's glare he only smiled wider and paddled away from her.

"Spyro!" Cynder chased after Spyro, moving as quickly as she could while keeping her head above the water. Spyro was going to get it if she had anything to say about it. Spyro backed away from Cynder as she advanced towards him, a smile on his face the whole time.

"Spyro, I'm going to wipe that Smile from your face!" Cynder lunged, splashing up water as she grabbed for Spyro, only to end up empty handed in the Space he was moments before. Wiping the water from her eyes, Cynder looked around for Spyro, yet she couldn't find a trace of him in the moving water. Cynder let out a low groan, "come on Spyro, you can't hide underwater forever."

"Who said anything about hiding?" Cynder squealed again as she felt Spyro wrap his arms around her from behind again, quickly pulling her back under the water.

Cynder let herself be pulled underwater, squirming to turn herself around in Spyro's grip. She was met with Spyro's bright grin while he quickly moved his head forward, pressing his forehead against hers. Cynder shared a grin of her own, though hers was more mischievous than Spyro's. Quickly warping her arms around Spyro she unfurled her wings and pushed hard, propelling them quickly to the surface. Both dragons gasped for air as they broke the surface of the water, though they remained locked together keeping their arms wrapped around each other. Cynder was the first one to catch her breath, her demeanor quickly changing to irritation as she let out a low growl. "Spyro, you are one dead dragon."

Spyro laughed and leaned in closer to Cynder so their noses were almost touching, "you'll have to catch me first."

Cynder only laughed in return, "I think I already did that." Cynder subtly pulled Spyro closer to her so their stomachs were touching. Both dragons remained quiet for a moment, relying on each other to remain above the water as they held each other. Cynder slowly moved her head to rest against Spyro's chest pushing him slightly onto his back and allowing him to keep her afloat.

Spyro was the one who broke the silence, a grin once again spreading its way across his face.

"What's so funny Spyro?" Cynder asked as she moved her head back to look at Spyro.

"I thought I was supposed to be one dead dragon…"

Cynder smiled again, showing her teeth to Spyro while pressing into his back with one of her talons, "who said you aren't?"

Spyro laughed again, earning a confused look from Cynder. "I told you… you have to catch me first." Without another word, Spyro slipped out underneath Cynder, disappearing into the water below leaving Cynder holding nothing but air.

Cynder scanned the water again, looking for where the purple dragon would surface again only to see Spyro launch himself from the water a few feet from where she was, showing her with water. After clearing her eyes, Cynder looked to see Spyro hovering in front her a few feet in the air.

"I told you, you have to catch me first!" Spyro laughed again as he hovered in front of her.

"Spyro!" Cynder yelled before quickly diving to the bottom of the river which was only a few feet below her. Pushing off the river bottom and pulsing with her wings, Cynder shot out of the water and into the air, heading straight for Spyro.

Zach continued watching where Spyro and Cynder had disappeared to from his place behind Terador. He was beginning to wonder what they were doing, but then again, maybe he didn't want to know. Zach looked ahead at Terrador, he didn't seem interested and since they hadn't caught up to Spyro yet Zach really didn't see a problem anyway.

As if to calm his anxiety further, Zach saw Spyro appear over the tree line laughing, Cynder chasing after him obviously upset about something. Zach laughed as they raced beneath him, giving him an idea of just how fast they could fly. Cynder was yelling at Spyro for something, but he couldn't quite make out the words.

Terador dropped back to fly close to Zach laughing to himself about Spyro and Cynder's antics. "Why don't you go join them Zach? We aren't in any hurry."

Zach shrugged, "its not my place, they could use some time alone, besides, I'm not that great of a flyboy."

"Then that's even more reason for you to follow them," Terador motioned to the duo as they raced underneath them, Spyro now chasing Cynder. "Practice makes perfect. Besides I want you to keep an eye on them…"

No sooner had Terador finished than Cynder raced up past them, Spyro in hot pursuit. As they passed, Spyro reached out with a claw and slapped it across Zach's leg. Zach could vaguely hear Spyro yell, "you're it" before he banked back towards the ground to follow Cynder.

Zach looked over at Terador who only smiled and nodded towards Spyro and Cynder. Zach shrugged before rolling onto his back and pulling in his wings, braking off from Terador and racing towards the ground.

The second Zach broke from behind Terador he was struck with a rush of adrenaline. The wind rushing past his face and the feeling of weightlessness as his body plummeted towards the ground reminded him exactly why he loved flying. Zach pulled his wings as close to his body as he could and stuck his head straight out in front of him as he angled his body towards Spyro and Cynder directly below him.

Spyro looked over his shoulder to see Zach rocketing down towards him and quickly dove into the gap of trees created by the river, Cynder quickly banking down as well ending up in front of Spyro.

Zach flared out his wings, leveling out as he rocketed down along the river closely following Spyro and Cynder. Zach felt the adrenaline rush through his veins as he watched the trees rush by him in a blur out of the corner of his eyes. Every twist and turn of the river forced Zach into a banked turn that threatened to throw him out of control yet each strain against his wings sent a new rush through his body. He could hardly tell how fast he was going as he raced along the river line in an attempt to catch up to Spyro, but even if he wanted to stop slow down he knew he couldn't. At the speeds he was going, flaring his wings would threaten to rip his wings off his body. It did have its advantages though, while Spyro and Cynder had to keep pumping their wings to keep aloft, all he had to do was angle his wings and use the speed from his dive to keep himself airborne.

Zach looked ahead at Spyro and Cynder, both of them coming closer by the second. Occasionally one of them would check over their shoulder to look at Zach but each of them had a smile on their face. Zach could understand exactly why, the sheer exhilaration of flight was enough to put him in a giddy mood.

Cynder turned around once more, Zach could see her lips move as she pointed out something to Spyro before they both banked hard in that direction.

Zach, unable to slow down or effectively control his flight, shot past where they had turned and banked up into the sky instead. As he felt the speed from his dive bleed off as he climbed into the air Zach took a deep breath to clear his lungs before beginning to pant heavily. His lungs cried out for air and he could now feel the strain on his wings but his body still tingled as adrenaline still rushed through his body and he could feel his body begin to be pulled towards the ground again.

Looking over his shoulder, he could see Terador faintly in the distance coming towards him. They had flown a great deal farther ahead of Terador and it would probably take him five or ten minutes to catch up.

Zach waved once with his wing and received the same salute from Terador before Zach let himself drop towards the ground again to search for where Spyro and Cynder had gone.

Cynder wove through a tight cluster of trees with Spyro in hot pursuit. Hopefully Zach wouldn't be able to follow them through the thick trees. He wasn't that good. Its not that she wanted to get rid of him, she just wanted some alone time with Spyro more, she still needed to teach that dragon a lesson anyway.

Cynder broke through the last of the tress and landed running on the grassy knoll in the clearing. Turning around, Cynder waited for Spyro only to see him come barreling though the trees before crashing straight into her.

Spyro grabbed onto Cynder as he ran into her, sending them both tumbling head over heals to the center of the clearing where they finally rolled to a stop. Spyro breathed heavily as he lay on top of Cynder, slowly raising himself off of her and looking down at her face, grinning.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Cynder leaned up towards Spyro, putting her face inches from his.

"Well someone told me I was going to be a dead dragon, so I figured I might as well enjoy the time I had left." Spyro leaned down and bumped his nose against Cynder's, causing her to turn away and blush.

"Well I hope you enjoyed your last moments…" Cynder smiled before kicking Spyro off her, sending him rolling across the clearing and into the bushes on the other side. Cynder rolled to her feet and crouched, preparing to jump after him. "…Because you're mine now."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Spyro lay on his back in the bushes laughing. He hadn't felt this at ease with Cynder in a long time, and he had never been so close to her either. But it felt so natural to be around her.

Spyro's laugher quickly faded away as he lay in the bushes alone, he had expected Cynder to come after him. Spyro rolled off of his back and stood to his feet, making his way back through the thick bushes that Cynder had sent him through.

"Cynder?" Spyro called out as he broke through the foliage, what he saw made his blood run cold. "Cynder!"

Cynder stood immobile in the clearing, an ape wrenching her had back by one of her horns with one hand and holding a jagged knife to her throat with another.

"I was wondering when you would come out of there. I was hoping you would stay back there until I could get away, but I guess that won't happen now." The ape's voice was hash and raspy as it came out between his rotten teeth. He stood hunched over Cynder solidly holding the short blade with expert care and precision like he had done it all his life. His short gray fur covered all of his body except for his face, but unlike most of the other apes, he was small and lanky, though Spyro could still see the strength in his body.

"What do you want?" Spyro took a step towards the ape, keeping his body low to the ground. As he moved, the ape moved in the opposite direction, yanking on Cynder's horn to pull her in between himself and Cynder.

The ape raised its knife and plunged it into Cynder's hind leg just below her spine causing her to scram out in pain. The ape quickly pulled it out, yanked back Cynder's head, and held the bloodied knife to Cynder's throat again. "Not another step forward or she dies. That's so you know I mean business, now back up."

Spyro let out a low growl as he took three steps backwards, catching Cynder's gaze as he did so. Her gaze still held her fierce determination, but she couldn't hide her fear and pain.

"Good, I'm glad we understand each other." The ape spread his lips to show his rotten teeth again as he pushed the blade closer to Cynder's throat.

"Why don't you jest let her go" Spyro stayed low to the ground, racking his brain trying to come up with a plan. He wasn't going to go through this again.

"And why would I do that? The second I let her go one of you will turn around and kill me." The ape turned his attention to Spyro, wrenching Cynder's neck again as she tried to wriggle away.

"Well what if I promise you that we wont?" Spyro posed the question; one ape wasn't worth Cynder.

"It doesn't matter. I'm a dead man either way. If I go back telling them I had one of you in my grasp and let you go free they would kill me for sure. So I might as well just kill her anyway. It would be one less dragon to worry about, and I would die a hero." The ape pressed the blade harder against Cynder's throat, braking the scales and drawing blood.

"Don't!" Spyro took a step towards the ape, letting out another low growl.

"And why shouldn't I?" The ape flourished his dagger before quickly returning it to Cynder's throat.

Spyro silently let out his held breath; at least he had bought a little more time. Spyro glanced around the clearing looking for something that could help him out of the mess he was in. Finding nothing, Spyro looked back at the ape, only to be distracted by a rustle in the bushes behind the ape.

"What?" The ape turned his head and look behind him before turning back around to stare at Spyro. "You think you can distract me like that? Think again whelp, I've fought more battles than you can count." The ape broke into cackling laugher, though he never let down his guard or let go of Cynder.

As he was laughing Spyro didn't say anything in response, he only kept starring behind the ape, he knew he had seen something there. Spyro squinted at the area behind the ape, a glimmer seemed to float in the air behind him. Much to his surprise, the glimmer seemed to dissolve in thin air, leaving Zach standing behind the ape. Spyro quickly calmed his face to shield his surprise as the ape stopped laughing and turned his attention back to Spyro. But Spyro's attention wasn't completely on the ape; instead he was making eye contact with Zach, trying to form some kind of coherent plan without the ape noticing.

Zach looked just as confused and scared as Cynder; his legs shook slightly, though his face was steeled as he looked at Spyro. Spyro watched as Zach raised one of his talons and drew it across his neck. Spyro waited a moment before giving a barely perceptible nod. They were running out of time and it may be the only way to save Cynder.

Zach nodded before mouthing the word "Cynder"

Spyro only raised an eyebrow in response, keeping his attention partially on the ape. The ape was still laughing; thankfully keeping himself occupied until they could figure something out.

Zach glanced at the ape before mouthing again; "does she know I'm here."

Spyro replied with a subtle nod of his head; Cynder's wide eyes were still on him.

Zach nodded before holing up one finger and mouthing, "distract him," before disappearing from sight. Spyro didn't really have any choice, there wasn't anything he could do anymore.

The ape, finally finished with his bought of laughter, focused back on Spyro. "Whelpling dragon you have much to learn about the world, such as how cruel it can be." The ape gave another toothy grin as it glanced down at the dagger held against Cynder's throat, slowly drawing it across her throat drawing another trickle of blood.

"Wait, why not take me instead of her. Surely that must mean more to you." Spyro was desperate to buy more time, why hadn't Zach moved yet?

Once again the ape laughed in Spyro's face, though not nearly as haughtily this time. "What so I can lose both of you and die with nothing? I don't think so." The ape grinned one more time bloodlust taking hold over his features. "Say goodbye to your girlfriend, dragon." The ape held his dagger out away from Cynder's throat, perhaps for dramatics perhaps to make sure he felled her with one blow, but it was his one fatal mistake.

Zach lunged at the ape, quickly wrapping his jaws around the ape's throat, closing his eyes and biting down while knocking the ape over. Zach could feel his teeth tear through muscle and tissue, wrapping around the ape's spine before sharply twisting his neck resulting in a loud snap. All of this before the ape ever reached the ground. They both landed with a thud, knocking dust and grass up into the air clouding Zach's vision.

Zach stood on the ape's body; his teeth still latched around its throat as blood began to spill into his mouth, filling it with the warm taste of rust. Slowly Zach opened his eyes only to stare into the lifeless face of the ape on the ground; its mouth open in and angry snarl and its eyes wide open in shock, no doubt from having Zach appear out of nowhere. Zach slowly unclenched his jaws, only to get another mouthful of blood from the ape as it flowed out of the gaping holes in its throat. Spiting as he raised his head, Zach turned away from the ape and towards Spyro who was standing over Cynder on the ground.

A bolt of fear shot through Zach as he slowly approached Spyro. His mind flashing back to those weeks ago in the gardens when he had seen Spyro in the same position over a dying Cynder, a wound in her neck from a failed attempt to save her from her own death.

His fear was quickly washed away as he heard Spyro calmly talking over Cynder's quiet sobbing.

Spyro quickly looked over Cynder, looking for any serious injures other than the wound in her leg, finding none he quickly laid down next to her, wrapping his arms around her as he curled into a protective ball.

"Spyro…" Cynder let out a silent sob as she buried her head into Spyro's chest.

Spyro covered her with one wing and out his head on top of hers. "Its ok Cynder…"

"Its ok?" Cynder quickly brought her head up to stare Spyro in the face. "I had to sit there with a knife to my throat for how long until you finally decided to do something, and you!" Cynder turned to Zach "you had to wait till the last possible moment to jump into didn't you!"

Zach shrank back slightly "Hey I'm sorry, I didn't want you to get caught by the knife if…"

"Just shut up…" Cynder looked down at her injured leg. "And make yourself useful. It's the least you two could do for not telling me what was going on." Cynder finished with a humph, slowly turning back into Spyro's embrace, settling her head on his forelegs.

Zach looked at Spyro who only shrugged in response before motioning down towards Cynder's hurt leg with his head. Zach chuckled slightly and reached out his hand, at least he could do this right.

They were interrupted, however, by the sound of heavy wing beats before Terador appeared over the clearing and dropped to the ground. "By the ancestors, what happened here? Are all of you alright?"

Zach and Spyro both nodded, Spyro nodding towards Cynder to show she was all right as well.

Zach, whose white scales were still covered in blood, turned to answer him. "It's a long story."

"Indeed, an I intend on hearing all of it." Terador glanced over at the ape's corpse on the ground. "This troubling matter must be addressed. Zach, perhaps you should go clean up, I can hear Spyro's account while you're gone."

"Just a second, I should take care of Cynder first." Zach waited until Terador nodded before walking over to Cynder, putting his hand over the jagged wound.

"Be careful Zach. I know how weary using that makes you. Remember we have to make it to Warfang by tonight as well." Terador spoke up before Zach began.

"I will." Zach nodded before releasing what power he had left. Zach quickly felt the energy flow out of his body and into Cynder. Opening his mouth, Zach once again breathed a slight green mist over the injured area. He had a lot of practice with all of the cuts and bruises he gained during his training and he found that he could control it better if he was using his breath as well. Zach tried to concentrate on just sealing up the wound so he didn't drain all of his energy, but just because he had some practice with his power didn't mean he knew how to control it. It seemed to have a mind of its own, concentrating on muscles, then tissue, then sealing up the wound, meaning he would have to wait until that was all done.

After about a half minute, Zach cut off the energy flow and broke contact with Cynder. He felt a little lightheaded from the use of his power with Cynder. He knew he had used too much, but he had to work with the injury until he knew it was safe to allow it to heal by itself, otherwise he might just make it worse.

Zach backed up and sat down a few feet from Cynder. Cynder's wound wasn't a small scrape or bruise by far but it wasn't life threatening either, if helping her to the point he did took this much out of him, he was terrified to see what would happen if he had a drastic injury. He just didn't have the endurance or ability to do much.

Zach thought back to what Ignitus had told him before he went back to the temple. If he wasn't careful with how he used his powers, he could kill himself…

Zach was jostled back to reality as Terador came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I told you to be careful Zach."  
" Yeah I know… I just couldn't leave it half done. Well I guess it still is though, even now that leg will still be hard for her to move for about a week. You might want to wrap it or something." Zach wearily shook his head as he looked over at Cynder.

"And when did you become such a good medic?" Terador laughed deeply and patted Zach on the back.

Zach shook his head in disbelief "I really don't know, I think it's partially from having to spend so much time with Volteer."

Terador laughed again before pushing Zach onto his feet, "come on Zach, go clean yourself up, we will rest for a while when you get back. The river is not too far from here, over in that direction." Terador pointed off into the woods in the direction Zach had come from.

Zach spread his wings but quickly thought better of it and tucked them against his side. He was going to need all of his remaining strength to make it to Warfang. He might drop out of the sky if he tired to fly now. So instead Zach began to trudge through the woods quickly disappearing into the foliage.

The second he was outside of sight from the others Zach turned into the bushed and wretched. The ape's face still burned in his mind as the taste of blood and bile seemed to overwhelm him, drowning out his other senses and threatening to knock him out. The rush of adrenaline had faded away, leaving his body shaking and mind not knowing what to do.

Zach turned and stumbled farther into the woods, the taste of blood still prominent in his mouth. His mind swam with sounds and images of the ape. His eyes staring out of his lifeless body, the sickening crunch as Zach twisted his neck the final time.

Zach turned and heaved again into the bushes. The aura of death seemed to linger in the air and on his tongue. He could still feel the life slowly drain out of the ape as his teeth were wrapped around its throat.

Zach turned again and stumbled out of the bushes to the river edge. It wasn't that far from the clearing.

Zach quickly trudge into the shallow water and practically thew himself of the ground, plunging his head underwater. Zach opened his mouth and let the cool river water wash through his mouth, cleansing his mouth of the blood and gore while replacing it with a cool earthy taste.

Zach held his head underwater until his lungs screamed for air, quickly ripping his head out of the water gasping for breath. Zach's gasps quickly turned to sobs as he lay in the river, tears quickly mixing with the water that ran down his face. His body was numb and he had no idea what he was feeling anymore. He was angry, scared, upset, confused… He had just killed something, granted it was to save someone else, but he just couldn't get it out of his head.

Zach continued to lie in the river letting the water wash way the blood clotted to his scales. This is exactly what the guardians were training him to do, but he had never expected it to feel like this.

Zach was startled by a small splash behind him, quickly turning his head away from whoever was behind him.

"Hey." Zach recognized Spyro's voice as he waded up behind him, siting down in the water behind Zach's right shoulder.

"Does it ever get any easier?" Zach spoke to Spyro, though he kept his head turned away from Spyro.

"What?"

Zach remained silent for a moment before quietly answering, his voice barely above whispering. "Killing… killing other things…"

Spyro was offset by the question, but he quickly understood why Zach was asking. "You've never… you haven't ever fought anything before have you."

Zach shook his head. "Nothing more than small game, never anything like this. Never anything sentient."

"Zach, I don't know what to tell you." Spyro raised one claw uncertainly but quickly set it down again.

"I watched him die Spyro, I felt his neck snap and the blood drain out of his body…" Zach's voice cracked as he looked at the ground again.

"Zach, it was either him or Cynder, and I don't think you need to think about who was the innocent one." Spyro moved up to Zach's side, looking him in the face. "I can't say that it will get any easier, you just need to remember what you're fighting for. Once you lose that, you lose yourself."

"Too bad I don't know what I'm fighting for." Zach looked away from Spyro, starring at the running water beneath his feet.

"Then fight for your friends." Spyro raised one of his claws and pushed Zach slightly, giving him a slight smile.

Zach turned to face Spyro, his tear streamed, blood stained face in a look of shock.

"I just wanted to thank you… for helping Cynder. I'm not sure what would have happened without you." Spyro looked away from Zach. "How did you find out anyway…"

"I was looking for you two after I lost track of you. I heard Cynder scream and I figured something was wrong… I just followed the sound." Zach looked down at his chest, rubbing off the last of the blood with water from the river.

"I wondered…" Spyro stared hard into the river water as well, looking at his faint reflection. Cynder's scream still rang in his ears, it was something he never wanted to hear again.

Zach splashed some water on his face, washing the last bit of blood out of his mouth and removing the tear streaks form his face. "How is she doing?"

"Ok" Spyro walked around so he was in front of Zach "Terador had me leave so he could wrap up Cynder's leg. She said it wasn't bothering her much anymore, after you helped anyway. I'm not sure what we would do without you sometimes."

Zach chuckled slightly to himself, "I hate to break it to you, but I don't really want to stick around very long."

Spyro nodded, "yeah, I guess we can't keep you around forever." Spyro looked away again, Zach could tell he was struggling with something. "Zach… I just wanted to say… I'm sorry. You deserve more trust than I have been giving you."

Zach smiled, fake punching Spyro in the shoulder. "So this is what I had to do to gain your trust huh?"

Spyro's smile faded away as he stared at Zach, "don't push it." Spyro stared at Zach for another long moment before cracking a small smile. "Come on, we should get back. Terador and Cynder are waiting and we need to get to the city and back before it gets too late." Spyro stood up from the river and walked back into the forest.

"And back!" Zach stood up and quickly followed after Spyro. "We have to fly back too!"

Spyro looked back over his shoulder to talk to Zach as he trudged through the brush. "Yeah, we can't leave the temple for too long, and its not like we have anywhere to stay in Warfang."

Zach let out a low groan. "Great, just great…"

Zach followed the others in his group closely as they flew over the walls of the great city of Warfang. The sun was still high in the sky as they flew over the walls, just a little past noon if Zach guess right. They had flown straight to the city after the incident in the forest, Terrador carrying Cynder for part of the distance to let her rest.

Cynder's leg was now wrapped with bandages from who knows where, probably from somewhere on Terador. Zach had though he saw some kind of bags on him as they left but had never gotten a good look. She, as well as the rest of the group, had been quiet for the rest of the trip. She had removed herself from Terrador's back about half way to the city, insisting to fly by herself. Spyro had come over to help her, but after a brief conversation, he had resigned himself to flying along side her; close enough to help her if she were to need it.

They were currently following Terador to pick up one of the candidates, quickly flying over the city buildings. They had thankfully flown into the city without much of a disturbance, as Terador had feared. Zach figured people were common at this time of day. It's not like four traveling dragons were anything to worry about.

Zach was forced out of his thoughts again as Terador took a sharp dive, landing quickly outside a stone pavilion. Terador waited for the younger dragons to land behind him before raising one of his massive claws to knock on the door support. After a few moments a pale red dragon answered the door holding a text in one of her hands, her face still buried in her book.

"Can I help you?" The dragon glanced around her text and immediately caught site of Cynder and her bandaged leg. "Oh, I see. Come right this way…" The dragon turned around without another word, barely paying attention to anyone else.

Terador smiled slightly and shook his head quickly before motioning for Cynder to follow the dragon into the home. As Zach followed them through the door he was struck by the familiarity of the room and even something about the dragon seemed to click in his mind.

"Just right through there…" the dragon pointed through a door with her tail. My son should be in there waiting, he should know how to help you for now. I will be with you in a moment."

Cynder looked back at Terador who gave her a quick nod. Cynder walked into the room followed by Spyro and Zach while Terador walked after the elder dragon.

Zach walked into the room to see a familiar dragon standing in the corner, deep blue scales covered his body while milky white streaks ran down his sides and through his wings membranes. Everything clicked into place

"If you can get up on the table I will…" the dragon turned around and stopped as he saw who had entered the room. "Hey… I didn't expect to see you guys so soon again…"

"Hey Makias…." Zach walked over to the corner of the room, lying down thankful that he wasn't the one on the table this time. Spyro proceeded to help Cynder up onto the table, her injured leg and the bandages giving her a slight limp.

Makias smiled and shook his head, walking over to Cynder. "This bandage here?" Cynder smiled and nodded letting Makias break through the wrap with one of his talons. "What is it about you people that you are always getting hurt?" Makias moved away the bandages and looked at Cynder's wound. It was still open though it wasn't any danger to Cynder. "Hmm… how old is this and what happened?" Makias questioned them as he went about his business, cleaning off Cynder's wound with a damp rag.

Zach looked over at Spyro for direction. Spyro glanced at Cynder for a moment before turning and nodding to Zach.

"It's a stab wound, happened sometime this morning…" Zach trailed off, knowing Makias probably wouldn't believe it.

Makias turned around and stared at Zach. "This morning? I don't think so. This wound is a few days old, but luck for you its not infected, it should heal up fine in a few days." Makias scooped up some clear paste from a nearby bowl and slathered it across Cynder's wound before wrapping a clean bandage tightly around it. Cynder raised her lip slightly as Makias worked around her legs but otherwise remained motionless.

"Well whenever this happened, you should be fine." Makias muttered through gritted teeth as he tied off Cynder's bandage above her back. "That should help with the stiffness and pain. I would tell you to stay off your feet for a while but I already know how that is going to end up…" Makias cast sideways glance at Spyro and Zach, causing them both to laugh.

"Well while you're here, do you want me to check up on you two?" Makias motioned to Spyro and Cynder. "Neither of you should be flying, but I'm guessing you two ignored that was well." Makias walked over to where Zach was laying on the ground, pushing his head out of the way so he could look at Zach's chest. Makias looked closely at Zach's chest, running a talon along what was left of Zach's scar before pulling his head back, looking at Zach in confusion. "What in the world… you should still have a scab over your wound… this looks like its been healing for years." Makias quickly turned and moved over to Spyro, pulling out one of Spyro's wings with his talons. Makias looked at Spyro's wings slack jawed, no trace of his torn wings remained on his now nearly perfect wing membranes. Zach had helped him with them only a few days after he returned to the temple.

Spyro looked over Makias' head at Zach, shaking his head slowly; Makias had no need to know.

"How did you two…" Makias dropped Spyro's wing and looked back at Cynder who had pushed herself up off the table. "And you… what is with you guys?"

"I guess were just fast healers…" Spyro muttered over his shoulder as he went and helped Cynder off the table.

Makias simply glared at Spyro in response. "Whatever…" Makias walked around the room, putting away some of the supplies he used. Taking a deep breath, Makias turned back towards Spyro and Cynder. "So what brings you out here again anyway. You couldn't have come all this way just for that." Makias motioned towards Cynder.

Cynder finally spoke up "We probably shouldn't tell you, but that reminds me. We should go see what Terador is doing."

"Terador is here?" Makias looked concerned as he walked towards the door.

"Yes he is. Lets go se what he is up to." Spyro and Cynder walked out the door quickly followed by Makias then Zach after he picked himself off the ground.

Zach walked out into the central room and stopped next to Makias who was looking across the room to where Terador was talking to Flare. Both dragons were conversing quietly with each other, though Flare kept glancing nervously up the stairs.

"I guess you're starting the trials then…" Makias talked absentmindedly into the air.

"Hmm?" Zach turned to look at Makias. "Yeah I guess, how did you know?"

"That's the only reason one of the guardians would come back here now. Cynder's injury wasn't serious enough to warrant a visit here." Makias looked up the stairs. "I suppose mom is holding of telling Chara, they told us she would be gone for a few weeks for trials. They never told us when they would be though, they just said they would come get her when it was time."

"What are you going to do Makias, with your sister out of the house? It might be a nice change of pace for you huh?" Zach and Makias shared a laugh before Makias turned to face Zach.

"Actually, I should be going with her. There are concerns about Chara being the only girl candidate, not to mention how young she is, so they are allowing one of us to go with her. Since Mom has to work the clinic and Dad is on the guard that left me to go with her."

"Sounds like fun." Zach laughed a little again.

"More like a babysitting job." Makias gave a heavy sigh. "Oh well, at least I won't have to do work for a while."

Both dragons gaze drifted from the adults to Spyro and Cynder siting in the opposite corner of the room; Spyro with his body wrapped around Cynder as they both slept. Zach smirked at how quickly they had fallen asleep together.

"They look like they're happy together." Makias murmured.

Zach chuckled, "yeah, and it only took them two near death experiences to get them this close together. Though I don't know if they're exactly… together yet."

"What do you mean by that?" Makias gave him a curious glance.

"With them, its best not to ask."

Both dragons were interrupted by quick footsteps along the top of the stairs, Chara quickly appearing and jumping down the whole flight using her wings to soften the landing at the bottom.

Terador quickly turned to address her before ushering both her and her mother out into the central chamber next to Zach and Makias.

Terador spoke up so they could all hear. "Chara, as I'm sure you've gathered by now, we are ready to begin the trials for the next fire guardian. Are you ready for this."

Chara took less than a second to answer. "More than anything."

Terador gave a small smile. "Good. I hate to be in such a rush, I know how hard this can be, but we need to leave soon Chara. Please take a few minutes to pack your things. We will leave as soon as you are ready."

Chara looked up to her mother who nodded before running back upstairs to collect her things.

As soon as she was up the stairs, Flare let out a worried sigh. "Terador, I know you said the trials would be soon, but I thought we would have more time than this."

Terador nodded slightly for encouragement. "Don't worry Flare your daughter will be in good hands. It will only be for a few weeks before your daughter will be safely returned to you."

Flare shook her head slightly before continuing. "I'm still worried about her being there by herself though."

"She is a strong willed girl, I'm sure she will be fine. And I know you still have your doubts but Cynder will be there as well."

"Hey what about me?" Makias broke into their conversation. "Wasn't I supposed to go with her?"

"Well yes…" Terador leaned down toward Makias "You might as well go get your things as well Makias."

Zach shook his head in disbelief before leaning down to whisper to Makias walking with him down the hall as he went to get his things. "You would think he would pay attention to those kind of things."

Makias shook his head, "you would think…"

Zach smiled slightly and nodded. "I just don't see what the big rush is." Zach stood by and watched as Makias went around his room, collecting a few different scrolls, some jars, and a journal before placing them all in a harness that he then strapped across his chest and back leaving the things strapped to his sides and chest.

"Well that's nifty." Zach commented, looking at Makias' harness.

"Yeah well it works…" Makias commented absentmindedly as he placed another scroll in a side pouch. "Well I think that's everything, let's go." Makias and Zach walked back out of his room into the central chamber again where Flare and Chara were talking, obviously saying their last good-byes.

"Remember Chara, I don't care what happens, remember that your father and I will always be proud of you." Flare reached down and nuzzled the top of Chara's head.

Chara laughed slightly and pulled away from her mothers embrace, her voice lighthearted and cheerful. "I will Mom, say goodbye to dad for me, I'll be looking for him when I get back."

Flare pulled Chara into a tight embrace before turning her gaze to Makias. "And you, take care of your sister for me."

"I will mom." Makias was grudgingly pulled into and embrace as well before returning it. "You know you don't have to treat us like hatchlings anymore, we're plenty old enough to go out on our own. Those three," Makias pointed at Zach, Cynder and Spyro, "are out on their own."

"Not quite, they have the guardians watching over them" Flare cast Makias a disapproving glance.

"Well then I guess we do now too." Makias was pulled into an embrace again before he and Chara were ushered out the door followed by Terador and Zach then by Spyro and Cynder who had been forcibly woken from their nap.

"Do well…" Flare spoke from inside the doorway, watching as the other dragons took to the air.

"I will." Chara nodded before launching herself into the air after the other dragons. She quickly came up alongside the other dragons leaving her home behind. "So where are we going now?"

Terador turned his head to address her. "First to collect two other candidates like yourself, then to the dragon temple."

The group of dragons stood outside an extremely large stone building which Terador had explained to Zach to be a kind of orphanage for young dragons who lost their parents during the war. A large yellow dragoness stood in the stone archway, a look of recognition on her face.

Terador spoke first, "It seems you were expecting us."

"We heard you were in the city and figured it was for this. He already has all his things packed and is ready to go. I will go get him." The yellow dragon turned around and walked back into the building leaving the other dragons outside to wait.

Terador sat down before speaking up. "Hmm, it seems word of us being here has traveled faster than I expected, we must hurry if we do not want to be swamped by other people."

"You would think with all these other people on the street someone else would have noticed by now." Zach looked out at the surrounding streets; each was filled by dragons as well as other races walking back and forth.

"They are too busy with their own business to pay attention to some dragons on the street." Terador let out a heavy sigh as he turned to look at the building they were visiting, letting silence hang in the air a moment before slowly continuing. "It pains me to see things like this happening. There are many young dragons in there that lost their parents to the war. We are lucky to have some elder dragons that give their time to take care of them."

A heavy silence hung in the air, Cynder turning her face away from them all. Zach quickly tried to change the subject. "So who are we waiting for?"

Terador rubbed his temples for a moment before answering. "His name is Flint. Much like Chara he is well versed in the use of his powers as well as being a fit young dragon. When we visited looking for candidates some time ago we were all impressed with his abilities. Since he has nothing else to do he spends most of his time training." Terador paused for a moment before continuing. "Unfortunately, the loss of his parents has left him bitter. The caretakers here say he has a short temper and often picks on some of the younger dragons."

"I thought this was supposed to be trials for the next fire guardian." Zach didn't try to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

"It is Zach. We were hoping that getting him out of this place might calm him down. And remember these are trials. Each candidate has their own strengths and weaknesses, whether they are physical or not." Terador finished before the group's attention was grabbed by the sound of claws on stone. Turning their head they watched as the yellow dragoness appeared followed quickly by a smaller male dragon.

His scales were a rustic red speckled with small flecks light brown, giving him the appearance of a weathered stone. He had a scowl on his face as he walked down the few steps to where the group was waiting for him, though he politely bowed to Terador. "Good morning master Terador, I am ready to leave." His voice was flat, holding no emotion.

Terador nodded, " good, just a moment and we will be off." Terador turned and began talking to the older yellow dragoness, though Zach couldn't make out what they were saying. As they were talking, Zach tried to get a closer look at Flint. Now that he was down on the same level, Zach could see that he was a head taller than Flint, though Flint still seemed taller than both Chara and Makias. His muscles were well built from what Zach could only assume to be hours of training by himself. The horns on his head as well as the spikes running down his back had large serrated edges on them and when Zach glanced down at his tail he could see the same pattern in his tail blade as well.

Zach cringed to himself; those edges would be nasty in a fight.

Turning back to Flint, Zach looked once again at the strange color of his scales, it seemed the small flecks of brown that peppered his body became the dominant color on his underside and in the mainstays of his wings while his wing membranes carried the spattered pattern of rustic red that covered most of his body.

Flint turned around while Zach was looking at him and made eye contact, raising his lip before slowly turning around and going to stand next to the yellow dragoness and Terador.

Zach only shrugged and turned away, talk about a temper. But he wasn't going to be the one picking a fight with that dragon, there was no way he could hold up against him.

Zach pulled out of his thoughts again by Terador's booming voice. "Good, then that is settled. Come Flint, we still have one more place to go before we can return to the temple." Terador stood up and moved out away from the building, quickly followed by the rest of the group.

The yellow dragoness stopped flint before he could follow. "Now you behave yourself. Remember what this is and what it means to you."

Flint's scowl softened before he turned and walked away. "Don't worry, I won't"

Waiting until Flint was in the group Terador nodded at the older dragoness before lunching himself into the sky quickly followed by the other younger dragons. Zach maintained his position just behind Spyro and Cynder while the rest of the dragons filed in behind him, Flint behind Chara and Makias.

"Finally, I never though I would get out of that damned place…" Flint cursed, looking back over his shoulder before spiting towards the ground.

Terador only scowled over his shoulder before banking and leading the group to a different past of the city.

"People are beginning to become curious about our group Terador…" Zach moved and placed himself in between the street and Spyro, blocking him from view, Spyro nodded in return.

"Yes I know." Terador glanced over his shoulder at some of the people beginning to gather in a group across the street. "We should only be here for a short while." Terador walked up to the house that they had landed near and knocked on the outside of the doorframe again. It was much like the other buildings in Warfang, made completely from stone with a tall spherical roof.

" I got it…" the group heard a young voice come from somewhere in the house before a young dragon, probably half the size of Zach, skidded to a stop on the other side of the door. Looking up, the young dragon's mouth hung open at the site of the huge dragon and the cluster of teenage dragons behind him. The young dragon quickly backpedaled before disappearing back into the house. "Mom!"

A few moments later, a large ash gray dragoness appeared in the doorway. "I was wondering when you would come…"

Terador bowed politely before replying. "I apologize for the sudden appearance, but you understand the circumstances."

The gray dragoness sighed. "Only slightly, but I understand. Won't you come in for a moment?" Turning she opened up one of her wings to motion them inside.

"I'm sorry but we will have to decline, our party has become rather large and we don't want to impede." Terador motioned to the young dragons behind him.

The older dragon gave them all a light smile. "I see, well let me just go…"

"Mom…" Another dragon appeared in the doorway, this one about Zach age, he figured that dragon was the one they were there to pick up. "Oh… hello Master Terador." The young dragon bowed slightly.

"Hello Ashe… I think you know why I'm here." Terador returned the bow.

Ashe's mother spoke up. "Can you give us a few minutes, we won't take too long."

Terador gave her a warm smile. "No that is not a problem, though I ask you t o hurry, we are starting to attract a crowd." Terador glanced over his shoulder again, the group across the street had grown in size and a few people were beginning to point and stare.

"I understand." His mother ushered Ashe inside before she followed him down the hallway leaving the dragons out in the street by themselves.

Zach turned to Terador, a question on his mind. "So did they not know that you were coming today? Everyone seems a little surprised by your appearance."

Terador sighed, "The beginning of the guardian trials have always been a closely guarded event, we do not tell anyone until the even itself starts. They have know I would be coming for some time though I must admit it is much earlier then I intended."

"So you show up and then ten minutes later their gone. And their families won't see them again for a few weeks" Zach's voice carried traces of irritation.

"I know it's not the best set up Zach, but we have our reasons for doing things. I didn't like it when I had to go though this, but looking back I can see why they did it."

Zach looked down at the ground, he had forgotten that Terador had to go though the same thing when he was younger.

"Don't worry Zach, they will all be back with their familiar within the next few weeks." Terador patted Zach's back.

"Yeah… at least they can go back." Zach drifted off again, ending the conversation. Looking around Zach tried to figure out what the others in his group were doing.

Spyro and Cynder were siting across from each other in the center of the group talking silently to each other. Zach couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about; he wasn't sure how their relationship stood at the moment. His gaze drifted over Terador, who was patiently watching the door, to Chara and Makias. Both siblings were quietly talking with each other, Makias seemed to be trying to comfort Chara as she worriedly looked around. He could understand why she would be nervous.

Zach turned away from the siblings to find Flint off on his own. His back was turned to the rest of the group as he looked up into the sky. Curious, Zach walked over and sat down next to him. "Hey."

Flint only turned his head to look at Zach, a scowl across his face. "What do you want?"

Zach raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I was just wondering what you were thinking."

Flint ignored Zach's apology and turned back to looking at the sky, remaining silent. Zach only shook his head and walked back to his spot next to Terador. "Well he's a ball of sunshine…"

"Give him time Zach, he's been through a lot, he only recently lost his parents." Terador looked condescendingly at Zach.

"Well just don't expect me to want to spend any time around him." Zach glanced over his shoulder again; Flint was still staring at the sky.

"Zach…" Terador looked at Zach again, but was cut off by the sound of claws against stone.

Ashe walked out of the home followed by his mother and what Zach could only assume to be his younger brother. His mother had streaks down her face from what Zach assumed was crying.

Ashe now carried a harness similar to the one on Makias, looking back Zach now say that Chara and Flint carried one as well. As he walked out into the light, Zach got a better look at Ashe. Very dark gray scales, much darker than his mother, covered most of his body, but his wing membranes and stomach were a vibrant red, making him stand out against the sandy brown stone of the surrounding buildings. Two large crooked horns jutted out of the side of his head before quickly sweeping back along the back of his head. His tail spade reminded Zach of a piece of shrapnel, resembling a jagged piece of metal with no trace of symmetry. He was about the same size as Flint, but was still smaller that Zach and Spyro. His build was muscular as well, making Zach wonder about just how fit he really was.

Ashe turned back to his mother. "Bye mom, I'll see you in a few weeks."

Ashe's mother reached down and nuzzled the top of his head. "Goodbye Ashe, take care of yourself. Make me proud."

Ashe pulled away from his mother's embrace, looking embarrassed. "I will mom." Ashe smiled again before leaning down to who Zach assumed was his brother. "And you take care of mom while I'm gone ok. You've got to be the man of the house."

Ashe's brother looked up at his him and set his jaw. "I will."

"Good." Ashe laughed and rubbed the top of his brother's head before walking the rest of the way out of the house to join the other dragons.

Terador quickly stood to his feet. "Normally we would have time for introductions, but right now we need to move."

Looking over his shoulder Zach noticed the crowd had grown and was now filling most of the street behind them. "Yeah that might be a good idea."

Terador moved to take off but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Terador, you take care of him. My boys are the only things I have left."

Terador turned around and bowed deeply to the dragoness. "Do not worry, they will be safe at the temple."

Zach was hoping this would drag out a little more, this was their last break before they had to fly back to the temple. Terador had already made it clear that they were not stopping on the way, and while this might not have been a problem for anyone else, he wasn't used to flying for so long.

Unfortunately for him Terador quickly finished, turning back to the group of young dragons. "Alright then, lets go" Terador launched off into the sky, quickly followed by the rest of the dragons. As they left, Zach looked over his shoulder to see the crowd move underneath them.

"So where are we going?" This time it was Ashe who was asking.

"Where else?" Terador called back as he banked towards the outside wall of the city. "To the guardians' temple."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The First Night

Zach let out a sigh of relief as he flew through the air behind Terador. He could now see the faint outline of the temple in the distance, which meant that he could rest soon. He knew that it would be a long flight when he left, but now that he was at the end of it he couldn't wait for it to be over. He was barely ably to keep himself aloft as it was, as soon as he stopped he knew it would be impossible to start again.

Looking back over his shoulder, Zach saw that he wasn't alone. Ashe, Flint, Chara and Makias all looked weary from the trip and had fallen a ways behind everyone else. They must not have been used to such long flights either.

Spyro and Cynder, on the other hand, didn't seem phased by the long flight and were now wheeling through the air around Terador. Zach only shook his head as he watched them dive in front of Terador, racing towards the ground before racing back up and aligning themselves with Zach.

"You seem to be moving fine Cynder." Zach smiled over at Cynder through his ragged breaths. Looking back he could see she had already removed her bandages.

Cynder roller her eyes and flew over closer to Zach. " At least I don't look like I'm about to fall out of the sky."

"Is it that obvious?" Zach beat his wings a few times to keep himself steady.

Cynder rolled over Zach in the air, aligning herself on his other side. "Yes, it is. But don't worry about it, you're not the only one." Cynder motioned back towards the candidates.

"Remind me of that tomorrow when I can think straight." Zach murmured back to Cynder, though his attention was focused on the quickly approaching temple.

From this distance, Zach could see Cyril standing on the central platform with another younger dragon that Zach could only assume to be another candidate.

"Looks like Cyril beat us back…" Spyro mentioned to both Zach and Cynder as he moved closer to them.

"Well then, why don't we go join him?" Terador called back over his shoulder before quickly dropping down towards the platform.

Zach watched as Cynder and Spyro dove towards the ground in front of him, before quickly following suit. All three landed on the platform, though Zach's landing was much less than graceful. Zach steadied himself as he heard four systematic thumps behind him followed by a large ruffling of wings.

"Wow, look at this place…" Ashe trailed off as he craned his neck to look at the temple.

"I've heard stories about this place, but I never knew it would look like this." Chara joined him in staring at the vastness of the temple.

"Yeah it's pretty cool." Flint seemed unimpressed, taking more interest in the other candidates then the temple.

"Uh Flint… I don't know if you noticed, but this whole thing… is floating… like off the ground." Makias shook his head as he looked over the side of the balcony.

"Yeah I saw." Flint answered flatly, walking to the doorway and sticking his head inside the temple. "It's just a bunch of stone"

Chara and Ashe only shook their heads at Flint. How could he not be impressed by this place? Sure it didn't compare to the scale of Warfang, but it was still huge. Add that to the fact that it was floating off the ground and that it was hundreds if not thousands of years old and it became one awe inspiring structure.

Spyro was disturbed from watching the candidates as he was struck in the face by a small yellow glowing object. "I sleep in for ten extra minutes, and what happens, you all leave without me. Do you know how worried I was?"

"Sorry Sparx, we kind of forgot about you." Spyro answered with a chuckle.

"I thought the evil she dragon had kidnapped you all again."

"Hey, knock it off Sparx" Spyro growled, starring his odd stepbrother in the face.

Cynder snorted beside Spyro, sending a small gust of wind to knock Sparx off his perch. "There, that's better."

"Ah Cyril, I see you have young Felix here." Terador walked over to the blue guardian, catching the attention of the rest of the group.

"Yes I do. Felix come introduce yourself to the rest of the candidates." Cyril moved to the side to allow a young dragon to step forward. As he cam out of the shadows behind Cyril, sun began to reflect off of his vibrant red scales that reminded Zach of the color of blood. He stood about as tall as Ashe and was well built like the others though Zach would more compare the new dragon to himself than to Ashe or Flint. The red scales continued along his body only slightly changing color as they ran down his stomach and the underside of his tail where it was a deeper shade of the vibrant red. His wings carried the same shade as the rest of his body; his wings and membranes mimicking the scales on his body like most other dragons. Four deep brown horns grew out of his head, two on each side with one placed behind and off to the side of the other. His tail looked like a combination of four or six different blades each overlapping another as they spread out and away from his tail in slightly different directions, kind of like a fan or the feathers of a bird. He looked quickly at the other dragons on the platform before stammering to address them. "Uh… hi guys… my name's Felix."

"Hey now, its not just guys here!" Chara stormed up to Felix, placing her nose inches from his a putting a stern look on her face.

Zach watched with amusement as Felix's expression changed slowly from shock to confusion then to fear and finally embarrassment as he looked down to the ground a few feet in front of him. "I'm sorry… I… I didn't know that you were here… I just thought…"

Makias rolled his eyes and Flint snorted while everyone else tried to stifle their laughter. It was going to be an interesting few weeks.

Chara looked down sternly at the dragon before quickly changing her demeanor and playfully flicking him with her tail. "Hey, don't worry about it. I was just kidding." Chara picked her voice up so everyone could here her. "Just remember that it isn't only you guys here anymore."

Chara stopped as she heard Cynder clear her throat from across the platform.

"Oh, sorry Cynder, I forgot about you." Chara smiled sheepishly before looking down at the ground.

"Anyway…" Terrador broke in, ending the awkward conversation. "We should wait till formal introductions until Volteer returns with the last two candidates. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that is him there now." Terrador pointed off to a growing speck in the distance.

Sure enough after only a few minutes, the bright yellow guardian landed on the platform followed by two young dragons.

One dragon was a white-blue color with streaks of dark blue running down his sides and through his wings. His stomach was an even deeper shade of blue, making it look black in the shadows. Two smooth ivory horns swept along his head, neatly curving back along his skull. Spike ran down his spine much like the other dragons ending in a smooth conical spade on his tail that tapered to a sharp point. He bounced on his tail with energy as he quickly scanned the balcony, stopping momentarily on each of the others faces.

The other dragon had deep orange yellow scales that ran down most of his slender body. His face had accents of a more yellow shade of his scales that were also present on his wing mainstays and stomach. Two yellow horns came out of his head at a strange angle before bending at a sharp angle to run back along his head. His tail ended in a short blade that looked a lot like the blade dagger. He looked around with keen eyes, examining his surroundings and taking in every detail of the temple and the young dragons on the other side of the balcony.

Terrador quickly spoke up after Volteer had landed. "Well then, since we are all here now, why don't we introduce ourselves before we go any further. As you all probably know, I am Terador the guardian of earth. That dragon over there is Cyril the guardian of ice. And this eccentric old fellow is Volteer the guardian of electricity." Terrador pointed to each of them in turn before turning and pointing to the blue dragon that had just landed. "Since you just got here, why don't you introduce yourself fist."

The blue dragon quickly stepped to the center of the circle, excitedly looking at each dragon around the circle as he spoke. "My name's Comet, I'm glad to be here. Especially with all of you guys. Don't you think it's so exciting that we all get to be here? I mean at THE guardians temple." Terrador raised up a hand to stop Comet's rapid-fire sentences. Spyro, Zach and Cynder all shared a worried glance with each other

"I think that is quite enough Comet, thank you…" Terador nodded to the dragon before turning away and rubbing the back of his neck. "And you young dragon?" Terador motioned to the orange dragon.

"I'm Crispen" The orange dragon bobbed his head in acknowledgement. "Like Comet said, I'm just glad to be here." His voice was flat and calm, either controlling his emotions or showing none at all.

"We are glad you are here as well, you all have shown to be promising students." Terador gestured to all of them before turning back to look at Felix. "I think this young dragon was in the middle of introducing himself before you all arrived, please continue." Terador moved over behind the young dragon and gently pushed him forward with his arm.

Felix scooted forward a few feet. "Like I said… My name's Felix… and I guess… there's not much more than that…"

Zach watched Felix with interest as he spoke. The young dragon shuffled his feet as he spoke, always looking at the ground. Zach could tell he was extremely nervous. Hopefully for him it would settle down in the next few days. He wasn't too sure how well he would do otherwise.

Once again the other dragons cave curt nods to acknowledge him, but otherwise remained silent.

"And now onto you Flint" Terrador turned around to face the dragons that he had gathered. Cyril and Volteer turned with their groups and all moved into a closer circle alongside Terrador.

"Like he said I'm Flint" Flint jerked his head towards Terrador letting out a small snort. "I'm here for the same reason you are, but unlike you, I won't be going home empty handed." Flints harsh tone made everyone shift their feet awkwardly. The guardians all looked at him silently chastising him at what he had implied but otherwise ignored his comments.

Ashe cleared his throat before he began speaking, breaking everyone out of their daze. "Well… I'm Ashe. I guess I'm as excited as everyone else to be here and I'm sure it will be fun to get to know each other…" Ashe trailed off as he ended, his voice unsure of what he was saying.

Most of the other dragons nodded in agreement, the obvious exception being Flint.

Zach glared hard at Flint who either didn't notice him or ignored him. There was something seriously wrong with that dragon. They had only been here for five minutes and he had already managed to make everyone uncomfortable in one way or another. Sure he might not have the best social skills, but even a toddler could control himself better that Flint.

"And last but not least, we have…" Terrador trailed off as he allowed Chara to introduce herself.

"Chara."

Zach watched as Comet and Crispen both started at the sound of her voice. They hadn't paid much attention to her when they landed, but hearing a female's voice coming from one of the candidates surprised them.

"Is she…" Comet started.

"Yes she's a girl, and yes she's a contender. Get over it." Ashe spoke up before Chara could defend herself, earning him a stern glare.

Comet and Crispen both shuffled their feet slightly but remained silent.

"And these three dragons will be helping throughout the trials. I'm sure you already know two of them, but why don't you introduce yourselves anyway." Terador turned and gestured towards Spyro, Cynder and Zach.

Spyro looked at the other two before standing up and nodding his head. "I'm Spyro, this is Zach, and the black dragon next to me is Cynder." Spyro motioned to each dragon in turn. Zach had his mouth slightly open as he had expected to introduce himself, but quickly shut it.

A murmur ran through the candidates at the mention of Cynder's name however, each candidate looking at her nervously except for Chara and Makias.

"You mean THE terror of the skies? What is she doing here?" Flint shot at Cynder, not caring to hide the sneer in his voice. "Has she come to kill the next fire guardian too?"

Cynder turned her head away from the rest of the group while Spyro stepped between her and Flint.

"She is nothing like she was. That is part of her past and she isn't proud of it. If it wasn't for her you wouldn't be alive right now. Now I suggest you drop the subject." A low growl emanated for Spyro as he spoke to Flint, his body crouched low to the ground.

Flint only sneered again. "Well I guess I was wrong. It looks like she can't even stand for herself anymore."

Spyro growled louder, bending his legs in preparation to spring on the cocky dragon.

"That is enough!" Terrador's booming voice cut both the dragons off, immediately silencing them both and capturing their attention. "The past shall be left where it is. In the past. Cynder's actions were not her own and she will not be held accountable for them. And that is final. I do not want to hear any talk of it while you are at this temple. Am I clear?"

"Yes master Terrador" Flint answered through clenched teeth, obviously defiant.

"Well then…" Cyril spoke hesitantly, if only to break the hostile silence. "You have all accomplished a great task getting to this point. Each of you is highly skilled in the use of you element, however, only one of you may gain the title of Fire Guardian."

Zach could feel the tension hanging in the air. Each dragon had came here fore the same reason: to be the next fire guardians. And each dragon knew the others were going to fight him or her for it. It's hard to make friends with someone you were fighting against, he knew from experience.

"Now then, why don't you all get settled down. There are plenty of rooms inside the temple but there are some restrictions. Chara, you will have a room on the same wing as Cynder. Makias, you will have a room on the same wing as Zach and Spyro. The rest of you will have a wing to yourselves." Terador ushered them all inside with a wave of his wing. "Cyril if you would lead Chara to her room, and Volteer if you would be so kind as to show Makias to his. Spyro, why don't you come with us. You can show these young dragons around the temple when they are done."

Spyro picked his head up and grudgingly followed after Terrador being the only dragon not getting a room that was asked to do something. He had wanted to be with Cynder.

Zach started to follow Volteer and Makias back towards his room but was pulled aside by Terrador. Bringing him over next to one of the walls and out of earshot of the other dragons', Terrador dropped his head and talked softly to Zach. "I know this may be strange to ask of you, but will you please watch after Cynder for a while. It would be too strange to ask her to accompany us, but I'm afraid for her well being after what happened this morning. Just stick close to her and make sure she stays out of trouble."

Zach raised an eyebrow at Terrador, uncertainty in his voice. "So you want me to follow her… without her knowing?"

"No not that, she can know what you're doing, I just want you to stay close." Terrador chuckled slightly before turning back to the candidates. "Well then, shall we continue?" Terrador walked down the hallway, leaving Zach.

Looking around, Zach noticed he was alone. Cynder must have slipped back outside while they were talking. He hadn't seen where she had gone after Flint's comment and was worried. Moving back down the hallway, a shiver ran down Zach's spine. He didn't have a problem with Cynder, but he was worried about what she would think about him being asked to escort her.

Cynder sat alone in the hidden glade. All of the damage from the fight a few weeks ago had been washed away or covered up. Not a single claw mark or drop of blood remained on the ground, returning the glade to it's peaceful state.

The black dragon was lying on her back in the shade of the large tree, starring up into its leafy branches and the sky above. Thoughts raced around in her head as a single tear traced its way down her cheek.

"Who could blame them?" Cynder spoke aloud to herself, it always seemed to help her think. "It's not like I can ever make up for the things that I did."

Rolling onto her side, Cynder rubbed her face in the soft grass, wiping the tear off of her cheek. "All those people… all those lives that I destroyed… how could anyone ever forgive me for that?" Closing her eyes, Cynder tried to fight off the images of destruction that ran through her mind, memories from her time as the terror of the skies. The same images often woke her up in the middle of the night, leaving her drenched in sweat with tears running down her face. No matter how hard she tried she could never get away from them.

"How could anyone ever care for a dragon like me." Cynder's voice carried years of sorrow as her mind immediately thought of Spyro.

"He's the purple dragon, the savior of the realm… and I'm just a lowly dark criminal. How could he ever care for someone like me." Another tear rolled slowly down Cynder's cheek before splashing to the ground.

"But I can't help how I feel around him. Every time he's near…" Cynder trailed off again, letting him mind wander through the happy memories of the short times they had spent together. Chasing each other during the flight to Warfang… The night they had spent together a week ago.

Cynder smiled warmly and closed her eyes, imagining the purple dragon wrapped around her like he was that night. Pushing herself against the grass she imagined herself pushing herself deeper into Spyro's embrace. All her worries seemed to vanish when he was wrapped around her like that.

The memory fading away, Cynder let out a heavy sigh. "But how can I tell him? I don't want to ruin the relationship we have now. He has always been my best… and only friend." Cynder listened to her own voice dissipate into the trees. Her internal thoughts seeming to wrestle with the words in the air. He could never be anything more to her, not after what she had done.

"I just don't know… how does he feel? Every time I try to ask or even bring up the subject I… I don't know…" Cynder let her voice drift off again.

She may not know how Spyro felt, She may not know why should couldn't tell him all the things she wanted to, but she did know one thing.

Cynder closed her eyes. "I love him…" her soft voice drifted away on the gentle breeze that swept through the glade, a half smile forming on her lips. Cynder lay in the grass for a few minutes, enjoying the soft breeze and the gentle touch of the grass against her body.

"Then why don't you tell him already?" The voice was accompanied by a chuckle that echoed through the glade. Cynder bolted upright and turned to face the person that would intrude on her personal thoughts.

Zach stood only a few feet away from her, a mischievous smile on his face. "Well?"

"How… how much did you hear." Cynder stuttered slightly as she stood up to face Zach on his level, though he was slightly taller than she was. Her cheeks turning red as she wondered just how much he had heard.

"Nothing that I didn't already know…" Zach's grin spread wider. "You know the only people that can't see how much you two like each other… are you two."

"How long have you been standing there?" Cynder partially wanted to change the subject, but she also wanted to get an answer to her first question.

"I don't know, five or ten minutes." Zach walked around Cynder and into the shade of the large tree, "you know, you shouldn't dwell on the past like that. Flint's just an arrogant jerk. He'll get what's coming to him in time."

Cynder cringed slightly, Zach had been here that long? "What are you doing out here anyway? You just happened to come here when I did?" The color in Cynder's cheeks was no longer caused by embarrassment but by irritation.

"Well sort of. Terrador wanted me to keep an eye on you." Zach scratched the back of his head.

"I can take care of myself thankyou." Cynder answered with a huff.

"I think that may have been a part of it too…" Zach motioned towards Cynder's injured leg.

Cynder fumed again but remained silent.

"I can take care of that now if you want. I think I've recovered from that monster of a trip." Zach laughed as he said this. Cynder lightened up at it as well but forced herself to remain angry with Zach.

"Yeah, that would be nice." Cynder kept her voice lever as she lay down next to Zach, offering him her injured leg. Zach cringed reaching up and placing his hand over the wound but keeping his face towards Cynder. He immediately felt the energy flow from his body.

"This should do it." Zach pulled his hand away as he felt the flow of energy stop. Looking down he couldn't see any trace of the jagged wound, only the sleek sheen of Cynder's black scales. Sighing he lay back down on his back with a grunt. He wasn't going to tell Cynder but even that small exertion had left him drained again.

"So why didn't you say anything while you were standing there?" Cynder stood up and looked down at Zach, this time it was him who flushed.

"I don't know… you just seemed to be working something out and I didn't want to bother you. I wasn't trying to intrude on your thoughts." Zach couldn't look at Cynder; instead he looked over at the tall hedgerow.

"But you heard… about Spyro…" Cynder looked away as well, more blood rushing to her cheeks. Zach's hearty laugh brought her attention back to him.

"Please Cynder… It's nothing that I didn't already know. I've seen the way you two act around each other." Zach smiled slyly at her.

"But you won't tell him? Will you?" Cynder growled slightly as she finished, half pleading and half threatening.

Zach only laughed harder. "If that's what you want. But I think you would both be happier if you just came out and told him." With that Zach picked himself off the ground and stretched. "Come on, it's getting late and I'm sure Spyro's done showing the candidates around. Why don't we go save him from them? I'm not sure I'm going to be able to survive around them for too long."

Cynder finally laughed as she turned and walked out of the clearing with Zach. "I know what you mean. Let's go rescue Spyro."

Zach and Cynder landed on the balcony attached to the temple. It had turned dark in the few minutes that it took them to make it back to the temple and Zach was finding it hard to see, stumbling as his feet touched the ground.

"I figured you would have had that down by now." Cynder poked at Zach, a small smile forming on her face.

Zach took a few steps to steady himself. "Hey… I'm tired and it's dark." Zach protested, walking a few steps towards the interior of the temple.

Cynder only laughed harder while following him into the temple. "Sure, make your excuses."

Zach grumbled under his breath, he was never going to hear the end of it. "Weren't we going to go do something?"

"Yeah… we should probably go find him. Though Terrador might already have him doing something else." Cynder walked through the dimly lit hallway, looking for any sign of the purple dragon.

"I know how that feels." Zach mumbled as he walked alongside Cynder.

Both dragons walked into the large central chamber of the temple, stopping to listen. The silence was broken by voices coming from one of the halls.

"Sounds like they're eating." Cynder stated turning down one of the hallways, Zach quick to follow her.

"Is that Volteer?" Zach asked, trying to determine the source of one of the louder voices.

"I don't think so…" Cynder stopped outside a large door, the one Zach remembered to be the massive dining hall.

Pushing open the doors, Zach and Cynder were immediately greeted by a wall of voices. Looking around they noticed most of the guardians and candidates siting around the room in groups, all talking amongst themselves. It amazed Zach that so few people could make such a racket, but he ignored the loud buzz and scanned the room for Spyro. Zach quickly spotted his bright purple and gold scales out of the sea of colors and pointed him out to Cynder. "Over there."

Spyro was siting at a table with Comet, Flint, Felix, and Volteer. Comet seemed to be the only person chatting away while the other dragons looked uninterested. Zach laughed as he saw Spyro try to get disengaged from the conversation, but was quickly drawn back in by Comet's constant chatter.

"What?" Cynder asked, coming up beside him again.

"Nothing…" Zach smiled to himself and shook his head. "I'll go get him, you wait here."

"Why should I" Cynder shot back quite defiantly.

"Because a message telling him you needed help would be less convincing if you are the one to deliver the message." Zach walked off towards the table before Cynder could reply again. Looking over his shoulder he could see her glaring at him before she silently slipped out the door.

Zach walked up to Spyro's table, quickly picking up on the conversation. Comet was repeatedly trying to start a conversation with Spyro about his travels and how he learned about his powers while Spyro tried repeatedly to end the conversation. Flint seemed uninterested in the conversation and on second glance Zach noticed he was asleep on the table. Felix was having his own quiet conversation with Volteer on the other side of the table but Zach couldn't pick up what they were talking about.

"So you actually went to all of those places. That's amazing. I mean… I haven't been anywhere outside of my village until now and I've never gone anywhere like you have. I mean... I've never gone adventuring." Comet's rapid-fire sentences assaulted Zach's ears like an annoying hornet. He quickly cleared his throat both to drown out Comet and to attract Spyro's attention.

Spyro turned to Zach, his eyes partially glazed over and his eyelids drooping before he recognized Zach.

Zach spit out the words that had formed in his mind before Comet could start again. "Hey Spyro. Cynder said she needed your help with something."

Spyro's eyebrows raised and his eyes became alive at the mention of Cynder's name. "Did she say for what?"

"No, just that she needed you help… now." Zach motioned his head towards the door.

Spyro quickly picked himself out of his seat and started awaking towards the door. "Sorry Comet, we'll have to finish this some other time. I better go see what she needs." Comet nodded. Zach turned to follow Spyro out but was stopped as Comet's voice cut through the air again. "Oh that's alright. Hey Zach. What kind of a dragon are you? I've never seen anyone with your color before."

Zach stammered slightly before answering. "Uh… I better make sure Spyro can find Cynder. She was off in the woods when she asked me to get him." Zach watched as Comet's face fell before he quickly replaced it with a smile.

"Ok then… we'll have to talk some other time too…"

"Yeah…" Zach murmured before turning and quickly catching up to Spyro as he moved towards the door.

Spyro leaned his head over to talk silently to Zach. "Hey… thanks for the save. I'm not sure how much longer I could have put up with the constant questioning. It felt like an interrogation."

Zach smiled to himself. "Don't mention it."

Spyro shrugged his shoulders before looking back towards the massive door to the room. "So what does Cynder need me for?"

"Oh she doesn't. We just figured we would save you from the candidates. You looked like you needed it." Zach chuckled to himself as he pushed open the door quickly followed out by Spyro before the door closed with a soft thump.

"Wait… We?" Spyro turned down the hall before almost bumping into Cynder. "Oh… hey Cynder"

"Hi Spyro" Both dragons looked at the ground and away from each other.

Zach restrained himself from slapping a claw across his face.

"So what were you guys doing while I was playing tour guide?" Spyro asked, trying to break the silence.

"Well Zach was following me around without me knowing." Cynder said, shooting a glare at Zach

"Hey… Terrador told me to do that. It wasn't my fault." Zach raised his hands in innocence.

"Yeah well you didn't have to…" Cynder cut herself off. Continuing any further would make her have to give away what she had been meditating on, something she couldn't do in front of Spyro.

Zach give Cynder a wicked grin causing her to scowl at him.

"What?" Spyro looked at Cynder but she wouldn't look back at him. "Didn't have to what?" This time Spyro looked to Zach.

Zach laughed and held up his hands. "I can't tell you. She would kill me if I did." Zach pointed over to Cynder still laughing.

Cynder had turned her head away from both of the boys, her cheeks flushing red again as the blood rushed to her face.

"Cynder?" Spyro leaned down close to Cynder.

She could feel his hot breath against her neck as well as the heat radiating form his body. It felt good just to be this close to him, but she didn't want him to see her flushed cheeks. "It's nothing." She replied turning her head further away from Spyro.

"Alright…" concern still filled Spyro's voice as he stood close to Cynder. Moving over he slightly nuzzled the side of her neck before standing to his full height again.

Cynder's heart seemed to stop as she felt Spyro's smooth facial scales rubs up against her neck. As her heart seemed to pound in her chest again more blood surged to her cheeks. That was the most intimate he had ever been with her. Usually it was a simple hug or a friendly bump, but this… this was something completely different. "I… I have to go take care of something… and it's late… I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow." Cynder stammered, keeping her face turned away from them before quickly hurrying down the hall. "Goodnight Spyro."

"What was that all about?" Spyro asked, turning to Zach. Zach only laughed in response.

Chara watched the whole thing silently from her hiding place a way down the hall, pressing herself against the wall as Cynder rushed past her towards their rooms. She had been out wandering the halls of the temple after she had eaten and had come back to see the three dragons talking amongst themselves outside of the dining hall. Curious she had hidden behind one of the support columns that lined the walls and watched as Cynder had flushed talking with Spyro before quickly rushing past her.

Silently, Chara smiled to herself before turning around and following Cynder back towards their rooms. It was time for some girl time.

Zach stood laughing at Spyro's confusion until Terrador walked out of the dining room.

"Ah there you are. It's getting rather late, and after today's long flight you should both get some rest. I've already told the rest of the younger dragons that they should head to their rooms." Terrador nodded to them both before looking around the hallway. "Have either of you seen Cynder?"

Spyro spoke up, "Yeah, she headed to her room a few minutes ago."

"Good, then that is everyone. Zach, Spyro, because of the candidates being here and some other sensitive… issues… I have to ask that neither of you be out at any time in the middle of the night. Please take care of everything you need before you enter your room. And one of the guardians will be patrolling the halls during the night so don't get any ideas."

Zach shrugged while Spyro did nothing.

"Good, then I will see you both in the morning." Terrador nodded to the both again.

"Alright then, goodnight Zach…" Spyro murmured before walking off towards their wing of the temple.

"Goodnight Spyro." Zach bobbed his head as the purple dragon walked away but turned back towards the massive door of the dining room. The candidates were beginning to walk out each turning the opposite direction of where Spyro and Cynder had gone and heading deeper into their wing of the temple. As some of the dragons walked out of the room, he heard a steady chatter growing consistently louder. Listening closely, Zach could her two different voices making up the chatter. Sure enough, a few seconds later Volteer and Comet walked through the massive doors, both talking excitedly about the applications of a thermal surge in a storm front.

"Oh great… another Volteer, that's just what we need." Zach groaned as he watched Comet and Volteer disappear down the hallway, their voices echoing back long after they had disappeared.

"Yeah well you didn't have to listen to them on the flight here." Crispen came up next to Zach shaking his head. "We flew for hours straight, and they talked from when we left to when we got here.

Zach shook his head. "I'm sorry…"

"Eh… don't worry about it." Crispen shrugged his shoulders. "It's Zach right?"

"Yeah" Zach nodded. "That's right."

"Hmm… well I guess I'll be seeing you around then." Crispen replied with a nod as well. "Talk to you some other time." With out another word, Crispen turned and followed the rest of the candidates down the hallway.

Zach shook his head and shrugged his shoulders; these people were going to take some getting used to. Suppressing a yawn, Zach turned and started walking towards his own room. He needed his own sleep as well. He was surprised that he was still standing after flying for so long and for using his power so much.

"Zach"

Zach turned around to see Terrador motioning at him again with one of his wings. "I would like to talk with you for a moment."

Zach groaned before walking over to the council of the elder dragon.

Cynder sat alone in her room, mentally beating her head against the wall for what happened. Spyro had showed her a deeper part of himself and she had panicked and ran away. Who knew what he was thinking now?

Her cheeks flushed again at the memory of their brief contact. It still sent shivers through her spine and she relished in the feeling. She had never experienced anything quite like that before, ot on all the nights they had spent together on their travels and not in the time since then.

Cynder let out a sigh kicking dust off the floor. She knew how she felt, but did Spyro feel the same way? Was she looking into things too much? Were Spyro's movements simply to console a friend, or were they something more?

Cynder rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling "If only…"

A knock on the door snapped Cynder out of her dreams. Cynder quickly composed herself as she sat up, making sure her face was composed and her voice was controlled before she answered. "Who is it?"

"It's me… Chara" the energetic voice easily cut through the door and filled the silence of Cynder's room.

Cynder's face fell slightly at the identity of her company, she had hoped it would be Spyro. "Come in."

Chara's small form quickly pushed its way into Cynder's room, shutting the door behind her with a soft click. "Hey…" Chara stopped at the edge of the room, unsure if she should intrude any further into the black dragon's room.

Cynder watched as Chara stood just inside the door. She was unsure her feelings about the red dragon. She had never been around any other female dragons and wasn't quite sure how to react. Part of her felt an immediate connection to Chara, but another told her to keep the peppy red dragon as far away as possible, from her and from Spyro.

Cynder shook her head and brushed aside her feelings, she needed to give Chara a chance before she made any judgements, that's all she had ever wanted as well. "Well come on, are you just going to stand there?" Cynder asked, motioning towards a smaller pile of bedding next to the one she was siting on.

Chara smiled before hesitantly taking a few steps across the room, slowly setting herself down next to Cynder.

"So what did you need?" Cynder asked, lying down to make herself more comfortable. She had been instructed by the guardians to help Chara if she needed it, as she was the only other female in the temple at the time.

"Well, I was hoping to… just talk I guess… get to know you." Chara answered hesitantly, shying away from the black dragons fixed gaze.

"Oh…" Chara's answer took Cynder somewhat by surprise.

"I figured being the only other girl and all… I guess I thought you might appreciate some girl time." Chara smiled at Cynder who only looked away.

The ensuing silence dragged on for a minute until Chara tried to start the conversation again. "so have you been the only girl here? I mean in the temple."

"Yeah…" Cynder trailed off, she was still trying to figure Chara out.

"I couldn't imagine what that would be like, I have to deal with my brother all the time and that's enough for me."

"You have no idea…" Cynder rolled her eyes, causing Chara to laugh. Before she knew it, she was laughing as well. Cynder smiled, as the tension seemed to drain from the room.

"I guess were both stuck with them all for a while. But at least we have each other, right?" Chara smiled again at Cynder, sticking her tail towards Cynder.

Cynder smiled back, though thoughts raced through her mind. She knew there was more to Chara's question than a simple yes or no. But something about Chara's nature seemed to reassure her. The prospect of having another female around seemed to put her at ease. The guys could be more than annoying at times, and that wasn't even including the guardians.

Cynder reached out with her tail blade as well, taping the blunt side on the top of Chara's blade. "Right"

Chara broke into a wide smile, slowly falling back into another fit of laughter. Before she knew it, Cynder had joined again as well, still unsure of what was so funny. Eventually their fits of laughter calmed and both girls settled facing each other, smiles on both their faces.

"So Cynder, what is it like here at the temple. I mean, besides the overpopulation of guys." Chara asked, rolling onto her side but keeping her head towards Cynder.

Cynder chuckled again before stretching out on her bedding as well. "I don't know quite were to start. The view is beautiful, there's plenty of food, and the surrounding forest has more than enough to keep people entertained for a long time, that is if the guardians aren't running you into the ground with a list of things to get done."

"They're that bad?" Chara asked, a look of worry on her face.

Cynder shook her head. "No, its just they don't see how much they're asking you to do." Cynder reached over and prodded Chara with her wingtip, knowing what she was thinking. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine."

Chara smiled at Cynder again before rolling all the way onto her back and staring at the ceiling. "So what are they like, the guardians?"

Cynder almost rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Terrador can be strict on keeping the rules, but he always has your best interests in mind. Volteer can be a blabbermouth but if you ever need to talk something out he will be there for you. He's also great for random tidbits of information. Cyril… well lets just say he has a big heart as well."

"Hmm…" Chara nodded, "what about Spyro and Zach? No offense, but you three have some strange relationship thing going on."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Cynder let out a sharp laugh. "It may be a dysfunctional relationship, but I'm not sure we could have gotten this far without it, even if it did get off to a rocky start."

"How so?"

"You will have to ask Zach about that one, it's more his story than it is mine and I don't want to go around telling people without his permission. Besides, I couldn't tell you the full story. They are a lot of fun to be around though. Especially Spyro…" Cynder trailed off, longing in her voice.

"You like him don't you." Chara stated this matter of factly, rolling onto her stomach and starring at Cynder.

"Wha… What do you mean…" Cynder stuttered as she rolled back onto her stomach as well, though she kept her face turned away from Chara.

"Oh come on. I've seen the way you look at him, at Warfang and in the few hours hear at the temple." Chara answered kind of snidely. Cynder remained silent. "That incident in the hall just now didn't help your case either."

Cynder stiffened as she whipped her head around to look at Chara in the face. "You… you saw that?" Cynder's voice was quiet as the blood rushed to her cheeks again.

Chara's smile widened. "Yes I did." Chara put a comforting wing over Cynder. "Don't worry about it. He likes you just as much as you like him. You'll see."

Cynder looked away again, her voice bouncing off the wall to reach Chara. "I guess."

Chara let her wing slide off Cynder's back, it was probably best not to push the subject any further. After another few minutes of silent brooding, Chara tried to start conversation again. "So what do you know about Zach? I mean, what is he like?" This time it was Chara's voice that was timid.

Cynder let out a heavy sigh, once again rolling onto her back. "Not much really. We've only known him for a short while, since Malefore's defeat, so there's not much I can tell you."

"But you have to know something about him, you've been hanging around him for a few weeks now."

"I don't know about a few weeks, but I guess he has been around a little while." Cynder stopped for a moment. "I don't know, he kind of appeared out of nowhere and I guess just got drawn in with us. He's kind enough if you spend enough time around him, but he's also reclusive. He won't tell us anything about where he came from, what he's doing here, or why he came back to the temple. Terador knows something about that last part, but neither of them will tell us anything about it. Apparently it has something to do with Spyro."

Chara nodded but let out a small sigh. "That's not quite what I meant. What is he like? What is his personality, what does he like to do?"

"You seem awfully interested in him Chara." Cynder raised an eyebrow at the red dragon across from her. She seemed to be deeply intrigued with the white dragon.

Cynder watched as Chara turned her head, tracing circles in the bedding with one of her talons. "I guess. Don't you think… he's kind of… cute…" Chara was so quiet by the last words that Cynder barely heard her.

Cynder jumped slightly as the words registered in her mind. Zach? Cute? The prospect made her laugh, but then again she was only interested in Spyro. Cynder thought of the white dragon, picturing him in her mind. His build was defiantly not anything special, but then again… Cynder shrugged it off. It wasn't anything she really wanted to concern herself with. And thinking about it, she doubted Zach wanted anything to do with it either.

"I don't know Chara, I've never looked at him like that." Cynder had to suppress her laughter as she thought about Zach being cute again. He was definitely not that kind of a dragon. She could hear his angry and confused retorts now…

"Oh…" was Chara's only reply.

Cynder immediately felt bad. Sure Zach wasn't likely to go along with anything like this, but it would never hurt for Chara to try. Besides, you never knew with Zach. "Why don't you talk with him?"

"Why don't you talk with Spyro?"

Chara's retort left Cynder speechless. There wasn't any way she could come back from that.

The ensuing silence was broken by a loud knock at the door, followed by Terrador's booming voice. "Cynder are you in there?

"Yes" Cynder picked her head up and turned towards the door, watching as it opened part way before Terrador pushed it open completely.

"I'm sorry about the intrusion," Terador's gaze flicked over Chara on the other pile of bedding. "Ah I see Chara is in here as well, then I will only have to repeat this once. Because of the sensitive nature of the trials and because of you two females, we ask that none of the younger dragons come out of their rooms in the middle of the night. So please take care of everything before you go to bed." Terrador looked at Cynder. "I understand that you have taken care of things already?"

Cynder nodded

"Good, I hate to be so blunt, but Chara I have to ask you to return to your own room as well please." Terrador turned with a nod of his head exiting out of Cynder's room.

"There's nothing like a curfew." Chara said with a shake of her head. Standing up she walked towards the door as well. "Thanks Cynder, I guess I'll be seeing you around then?"

Cynder replied with a nod of her head. "Yeah, and good luck with your trials tomorrow."

Chara smiled and hummed before she stopped and trued around as she walked out the door. "Thanks, and Cynder…" Chara paused for a moment. "I'll tell him if you do." Without another word she walked out the door, closing it with a click.

Spyro was in darkness again, though where and why he did not know. Looking around he could see nothing but darkness in every direction. "Hello?"

Spyro's voice was quickly enveloped by the darkness, the sound barely reaching his own ears.

Looking down at himself, Spyro noticed that his scales weren't their normal shade of purple. Instead they were a sleek black that matched the surrounding darkness, sucking in what little light existed into their dark depths. Shaking his head, Spyro tired to clear himself of the image, he couldn't go back to the darkness like that. He had promised himself never again after he had almost dragged Cynder into the belt of fire. He had almost failed when he nearly killed Zach in the courtyard at Warfang. That incident had scared him the most. Not so much because of Zach, but because of the look of fear he saw in Cynder's eyes.

Opening his eyes, Spyro was devastated to see that his scales were still a deep black.

"No, this is not who I am…" Spyro clutched his head in his claws, but even then he could still see the dark shine of the black scales.

They seemed to mock him, to call out to him "look at us" They said, "We are a part of you that will never go away. No matter what you try, no matter where you go, we will follow you. We are the darkness that swallows the light. Where we are, there is no hope. Come back to us."

Spyro squeezed his eyes shut as the voices seemed to dance around inside his head. "No, I will never go back."

"Oh, but where else will you go?" The voices taunted him. "We are the only place left. Because of you, Ignitus died. The guardians will never forgive you for that."

Spyro clutched his head tighter, tears beginning to fall to the ground. "Stop it!"

"Spyro?" Spyro's head shot up as Cynder's soft voice reached his ears. Looking up he could see her standing no more than a few feet away from him. He felt himself immediately drawn to her scales. They two were a sleek black. And although he knew she had fallen to the darkness at some point, he knew it had no hold on her now. Instead of seeming to absorb the light, Cynder's scales seemed to reflect starlight, pinpricks of light reflecting off of innumerable sections of her scales. Spyro immediately lost his breath in her beauty.

"No, she is nothing. She has fallen as well. She is nothing more than a hopeless dragoness." The voices seemed frantic now, though they didn't seem as loud as they did moments before.

"You're wrong." Spyro spoke out loud, never taking his eyes off of Cynder's dazzling form. "She is hope. She fell into the darkness, but she returned from it stronger than ever."

With the last words, Spyro felt the dark voices leave his mind, the black abyss coating his scales seeming to slide off and melt into the floor below, leaving his purple and gold scales behind.

"She is what I'm fighting for." Spyro walked forward and embraced Cynder, wrapping his wings around her. Spyro smiled as he felt Cynder returns the embrace, wrapping her arms underneath his and leaning her head against his chest.

"How quaint." Spyro froze again as an ominous presence seemed to encompass the room. Looking around he could see no sign of the source of the voice.

"Spyro!"

Spyro's head shot back to Cynder only to see her slip through his arms and meld into the floor in a pool of darkness. "NO!" Spyro whipped his head around in the darkness, once again looking for the source of the voice. "What have you done to her?"

Laughter seemed to come from everywhere at once. "Nothing you haven't done yourself."

Spyro watched as a light formed in another part of the darkness illuminating Cynder, lying on the ground dead, covered in her own blood. Spyro let out an earth shattering roar before screaming out the assailant, "You monster! Who are you? Show yourself!" Spyro growled into the darkness, his talons flexing, as he stood ready for a fight. He would tear whoever it was limb from limb.

The voice came back as calm as ever. "Don't you know… surely you can remember." Spyro turned around as a dim light appeared behind him, watching as a figure slowly took shape.

"You did this yourself." Spyro watched as a mirror image slowly emerged into the light, though his scales were the same black that his had been earlier.

Spyro growled angrily before charging the black dragon. "I am nothing like you!"

"Really?" The black dragon laughed as it easily sidestepped Spyro's charge. "Because the blood isn't on my hands." The black dragon gestured towards Spyro himself. "Take a look for yourself."

Spyro stopped for a moment and looked at himself again, only to rear back in shock. Blood was spattered across his purple and gold scales while it completely covered both of his front claws. "No…" Spyro silently mouthed the words, felling a small pain in the back of his head. "No!" This time it was audible.

"Yes…" the black dragon sneered at Spyro; "you did it, all by yourself"

"No! Spyro screamed and clutched his head as he felt the pressure build behind his skull. Spyro fell to his knees and then to the ground as pan began to overcome all of his other senses. As his consciousness faded away, his own voice echoed in his head. "You can never hide…"

Spyro bolted upright on his bedding looking frantically around the room. Realizing he was only in his room at the temple, Spyro slowly cradled his head in his hands and let out a few silent sobs. It had been a dream, only a dream, but it had seemed so real all the same.

Spyro looked down at his scales to reassure himself, calming down slightly when a small amount of moonlight reflected off of his golden scales. He shouldn't be having these nightmares anymore, Cynder was safe and sound inside the temple and nothing was going to get to her if he had anything to say about it. But if she was safe, why was he still having these morbid dreams, in every one Cynder either died or fell to the darkness again, regardless of what he did to try and stop. A shiver ran down his spine as he was once again overcome with the feeling of helplessness.

Spyro shook his head, standing to his feet. He wasn't helpless anymore. Walking over to the window, Spyro stuck his head out to feel the cool evening breeze. Spyro almost laughed to himself as he remembered the changes Terrador had made. After he and Zach had snuck through the massive windows Terrador had spent a day going around the temple and adding layers of rocks on the inside of the windows, effectively making them smaller. They were now only large enough to stick his head through.

Another breeze wafted across Spyro's face, the cool air calming his nerves and sending a relaxing shiver down his spine. Pulling his head back inside, Spyro walked over to his bed, but didn't lie down.

The guardians had told him and the others to stay in their rooms for the night, but his recent dreams had made him worry about Cynder. He was sure that she was all right, but the nagging suspicions in the back of his mind were making him anxious again.

Spyro let out another sigh as he realized it wasn't just anxiety that fueled his want to see Cynder. They hadn't gotten any time that the could really spend together that day. There had been moments when it was just the two by themselves, but someone else was always just around the corner, ruining any chance of them being able to talk intimately.

Spyro turned away from his bed, walking as silently as he could to the door. Slipping aside the curtain, Spyro put his claws on the edge of the door, but stopped before opening it. The incident outside the dining hall was still fresh in his mind. Cynder had acted very strangely when he had rubbed up against her. Maybe she didn't want him to be around like that. And she had flown twice as far as some of the other dragons. Entering her room now would only disturb her sleep, not to mention the fact that he would somehow have to sneak around whichever guardian was patrolling the halls.

Spyro removed his claws from the door and let the curtain fall back across the doorframe. Walking back to his bed, he landed heavily on the bedding. Looking out the window he could see the brilliant night sky illuminated by thousands of stars. The image reminded him of Cynder in his dream.

Closing his eyes tightly, Spyro tried to press the image out of his head. As beautiful of an image it was, it wasn't going to help him sleep. But the farther he tried to press it out of his mind, the brighter the image seemed to burn, Cynder's smiling form taking up all of his thoughts.

Groaning, Spyro pushed himself up from his bed, walked over to the door, and pushed it open a crack. Looking down the torch lit hall, he could see nothing but flickering shadows along the wall. Holding his breath, Spyro listened for any signs of movement outside his door, but the only sound was his own heart pounding in his ears.

Letting out his held breath, Spyro pushed the door open the rest of the way, cringing as it squealed on its hinges. Stopping, Spyro watched for any sign of a guardian coming to investigate, but after a minute he let out his pent up breath and walked a silently as he could down the hall. This was definitely not going to be easy.

Walking down the hallway, Spyro stopped when he came to the last corned, sticking his head around to look into the massive central chamber. Much to his surprise, all three of the current guardians slept peacefully in the room, each with their back to a hallway that some of the younger dragons were sleeping in.

Stepping cautiously around the corner, Spyro looked down to see Cyril sleeping at the end of the hallway, his feet sprawled out towards the center of the room. Cautiously, Spyro pressed himself against the wall moving silently up to Cyril's sleeping body.

The guardian snored slightly as his body lay sprawled across the walkway, but Spyro could see that he had moved in his sleep and there was now a sizable gap between the guardian and the door.

Spyro smiled inwardly to himself as he easily maneuvered around the sleeping guardian. This wasn't the first time he had snuck past them.

Moving around the room, Spyro looked to move down the hallway that held Cynder's room. This time it was Terrador that was blocking his path. He, however, had remained pressed up against the frame of the hallway, effectively becoming a living wall.

Spyro gave an irritated snort and looked for some way around the massive guardian. His shoulder blades and hips were pressed up against the stone on both sides of the wall, making squeezing around him impossible. The only way Spyro could see to get through would be overtop of the guardian.

Spyro shook his head, he was going crazy. He should have turned around minutes ago, but something kept drawing him towards Cynder's room. Backing up, Spyro aligned himself with the small gap between the roof of the temple and the slumbering guardian. Pushing off strongly with his hind legs, Spyro took a great bound towards his destination. Landing on the ground once more, he pushed off of the ground before quickly unfurling his wings and giving himself a strong push.

Spyro felt his horn graze the ceiling of the chamber, knocking dust and small rocks onto the ground below, as he seemed to float over the sleeping guardian below him. At the height of his jump, Spyro pulled his wings against his sided so they would not smack against the sided of the narrower hallway.

Spyro landed with a thunk, his talons making soft clicking noises against the hard stone. But in the quiet temple, the noise sounded like a siren to Spyro. Holding himself perfectly still, he turned his head to listen to anything that might have stirred.

Silence.

Spyro turned and looked at the sleeping guardians in the room behind him, laughing silently to himself. So much for their patrol. Turning, Spyro headed down the hallway towards Cynder's room, taking a corner that put him out of sight of the guardians. He was pretty much home free now as long as he didn't make too much noise.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Spyro froze as he heard the cold voice behind him, cringing slightly as he realized he had been caught. Cursing silently to himself, Spyro ran though what he might have missed. He was sure all of the guardians had been asleep when he left the room, maybe one of them was just pretending and had followed him after he left. Spyro turned around slowly only to come face to face with "Zach… what are you doing out here?" Spyro's voice was a harsh whisper, trying to keep himself silent while questioning Zach.

"Well I asked you first, but if you must know I have the wonderful job of patrolling the hallways tonight." Zach rolled his eyes, not attempting to keep his voice below more than a common conversation.

"Wait, you?" I thought a guardian was going to do it." Spyro whispered hoarsely again, checking down both directions of the hall

"I would be that guardian as of now."

"You're guarding the halls? Wait… does that mean you're a guardian?" Spyro voice rose with suspicion as he finished though he kept his volume low as to not wake anyone else up.

"Yes to the watching the hall part, no to the guardian." Zach answered with a smile. "They said that this was another part of my 'training' though I think they just don't want to do it themselves. I don't get why they trust me to do this part anyway. I'm as young as you guys are." Zach shrugged. "Terrador pulled me into it just before I went to bed. He also talked to me about some of the things I'm going to be doing for the trials as well."

"Oh." Was Spyro's only reply.

Zach turned a suspicious eye back on Spyro. "Now, back to my question. Where do you think you're going? No one else is supposed to be out of their rooms right now."

"Uh… well…" Spyro stammered for an answer.

Zach just gave him a toothy grin. "Her room's just down the hall you know." Zach chuckled slightly before he turned and walked farther down the hall. "I know why you're here, and I can't say that I blame you." Zach stopped just outside of Cynder's room. "And I'm pretty sure I can trust you two not to do anything too stupid."

Spyro shot Zach a confused look.

"Well?" Zach raised an eyebrow and motioned towards Cynder's door

Spyro stared for a moment before opening his mouth. "Thanks Zach, I don't know…"

"Don't thank me." Zach said with a straight face. "If you get caught, I had nothing to do with this. You snuck in while I was in another part of the temple, got it?"

Spyro nodded.

Zach smiled again. "Good. You two have had a long day; you deserve some time together. But don't stay in there all night, the guardians told me they would be checking rooms in the morning when they wake everyone up.

"Thanks Zach…"

"Like I said, don't. This never happened." Without another word, Zach turned and disappeared into the surrounding darkness.

Spyro muttered to himself as he watched the space where Zach had been. "It bother's me how he can do that."

Spyro's attention turned back to Cynder's door. Should he knock? Should he just go in? Should he even be here at all? His mind swam with questions as he stood outside, simply starring at the door in front of him. Cynder would be sleeping by now so waking her wouldn't be a good idea, but just walking into her room might not be either. Who knew how she would react if she woke up and he was in her room uninvited?

Spyro let out an irritated growl and picked his hand up to knock on the door. But before it reached the door, he changed his mind and simply pushed to door open with a small groan before silently slipping into her room.

He was immediately greeted with darkness as the door shut with a subtle click behind him, his eyes struggling to adjust to the sudden lack of light. Standing in the darkness, Spyro breathed quietly waiting for his eyes to adjust.

"Spyro?"

Spyro jumped as he heard Cynder's voice come to him clearly from somewhere in the room. He hadn't expected her to be awake. Not wanting her to think it was someone else, Spyro hesitantly answered. "Yeah… It's me." Spyro trailed off as images began to form, he could see the faint outline of Cynder lying on her bedding in the center of her room. "Sorry for just coming in like that, I thought you would be asleep and didn't want to wake you."

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was laced with curiosity and concern. "Is something wrong?" Spyro heard her shift in her bed.

Spyro hesitated again before answering. "No…"

"Wait, how did you get past the guardians? I thought they were supposed to be in the hall. Did they let you come past?"

Spyro chuckled slightly, "well, they're in the halls alright. Sleeping in front of them that is. I had to jump over Terrador"

Spyro heard Cynder laughed quietly from across the room. "They always were heavy sleepers. But what are you doing here? You can't tell me you were just out for a stroll in the middle of the night and decided to stop by." Cynder's voice was laced with suspicion.

"Its nothing." Spyro's voice faltered as his dream flashed through his mind, both the good and the bad.

Cynder wasn't convinced. "I know you better than that, what is it. And will you come closer, I'm tired and it's annoying to talk across the room."

Spyro took hesitant steps forward until he was standing at the edge of Cynder's bed. He could see she was lying on her stomach with her wings splayed out alongside her. He could now see starlight from her windows reflecting off her scales giving them a shimmering brilliance while her eyes were turned towards him, catching him in a trance. His legs were unsteady, but he didn't dare to lay down in her bed or ask for her permission.

"So?" Cynder asked, wrapping her tail around herself. "What's bothering you. And don't you dare say nothing."

Spyro let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know. I've been having these dreams." Spyro trailed off, hoping that she wouldn't hear him.

Cynder shifted again on her bead, coming to full attention. "Spyro, you know what your dreams can mean. Have you talked to the guardians about them?"

Spyro shook his head. "No. But I don't think they're like that. The dreams are different every time." Cynder waited for him to go on. Spyro let out a heavy sigh before continuing, he might as well tell her everything. "It started a few weeks ago, when you wee attacked by Zach." Spyro said it like the event left a bad taste in his mouth. " I began to have these dreams. They were always different, but in each and every one of them, you ended up dying." Spyro decided to leave out the part about him being the one to kill her, there were some things that she didn't need to know. "After you came back, they seemed to stop and I thought it was just because I was so worried about you. But now I don't know."

"You had one again tonight?" Cynder wasn't asking, she knew.

"Yeah. Part of me says its just because we ran into that ape in the forest today." Spyro trailed off, looking out Cynder's small window. "But the other part of me just doesn't know…"

"Spyro, I'm fine. There's nothing to be worried about anymore. Malefore's gone, The war's over, Terrador and the guardians are taking care of the last remnants of apes, and I'm safe. I know you're worried, but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

Spyro breathed deeply, slowly letting out his breath in a wave of condensed frost and snow. "I guess you're right Cynder, but I still can't help but worry." Cynder's words had clamed his split nerves some, particularly the last few things she said.

Cynder shivered, "Now why did you have to do that? Now its colder than Dante's Freezer in here." Cynder laughed in spite of the cold. "You know you're going to end up like Terrador if you keep worrying like this, I know its like you to worry about theses things, but let someone else take care of it for once. You've done more than you're fare share, its time for you to rest." Cynder turned her head away from Spyro and set it down on her bedding closing her eyes.

"I know, it's just that I'm worried about you, that's all." Spyro trailed off, leaving the two in the silence of the cool night air.

Cynder was the one to break the silence, her voice coming weak and unsteady. "Do you really care about me that much?" Cynder turned her head back up towards Spyro.

"Yes, I do. Cynder I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." Spyro answered confidently, leaning down towards Cynder as he spoke moving his face inches from hers.. Spyro thought he saw a tear in her eye before she turned her head a way from him again.

"Well… speaking of rest, you should probably get some. Since you said you had to jump over Terrador to get here, it might not be a good idea to try and go back. You're welcome to stay here." Cynder's voice ending with longing, though Spyro was too tired to pick up on it.

Spyro thought about it. Zach had said they would be checking the rooms again in the morning, but he really didn't want to have to jump over Terrador and possibly Cyril again if he tried to make it back to his room. He had gotten lucky once and he might not be so lucky the second time. "Sorry Zach, but I'm not doing that again.

"Zach?" Spyro heard Cynder shift again in her bed.

Spyro laughed, moving and placing himself on the piece of bedding opposite Cynder. "I'll explain later. Are you sure you're ok with this?"

"Yeah…" Spyro couldn't hear the disappointment in her voice.

"Goodnight Cynder."

"Goodnight Spyro"

Spyro closed his eyes, breathing deeply to take in Cynder's scent that permeated her room. The smell seemed to relax him, and his body soon began to feel heavy.

After a few minutes, Spyro heard movement on the other side of the room. Curious he picked his head up, but his eyes were and he blurred from sleep and he couldn't see anything. "Cynder?" Spyro spoke into the silence.

His answer came when he felt a warm body lay down next to him, pressing up against his stomach and under his chin. He could immediately smell Cynder's scent, much stronger than the scent that lingered in the air of her room.

"Cynder." This time it was more of a statement than a question.

"You made it colder than Dante's Freezer in here, and while you may not be bothered by it, I'm freezing my tail off. So now you're going to keep me warm." Spyro chuckled as he heard Cynder talk through chattering teeth as she pushed herself up against her chest.

But though he was laughing, Spyro could feel his heart beating rapidly within his chest. Cynder had moved over and pressed up against him, but he was just lying there unsure of what to do. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms, but how would she feel about it.

Slowly and carefully, Spyro dared to wrap his forearms around Cynder's slim form, draping a wing over her in the process. After a few tense second, Spyro relaxed as he felt Cynder nestle herself deeper in his arms letting out a contented sigh. Feeling bolder, Spyro wrapped his tail around Cynder as well while turning his head back towards his tail; almost making a complete circle with his body with Cynder in the middle. Satisfied, he let his head relax, slowly closing his eyes as he felt Cynder nuzzle her head under his chin again.

Neither dragon spoke, neither dragon moved. They only enjoyed the company of the other as the night slowly whittled away.

"I'll always be here for you Spyro." Cynder's words echoed in her mind as she rested in Spyro's arms.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The First Day

Cynder woke to the soft sunlight filtering though her window. Shifting her body slightly, she tried to send blood to each of her sluggish limbs, attempting to rouse them from her slumber. As her body shook off the last night's sleep, Cynder noticed it was abnormally warm in her room. Usually the cool morning air would chill her scales when she awoke, but today the air around her was incredibly warm, threatening to lull her back to sleep. But she needed to get up. The guardians were probably going to need help with the new candidates and she may never hear the end of it if she wasn't there.

Finally opening her eyes, Cynder was greeted by a wall of purple scales. Slowly, the events of the night before began to filter through her mind.

She had moved over on her own bed to give him room to lay down next to her, but he had missed her invitation and laid down on the bed across from her instead forcing her to move over to him. She had hoped just to share a bed with him, just to lie next to him, but this was far better than she had hopped. Sure she wasn't lying when she had said she was cold, but that wasn't the only reason she had moved next to him.

Now he was lying with her in his arms.

Inhaling deeply, Cynder took in Spyro's scent as she nested herself under his chin again. Her head swam as his scent filled her nostrils. It was so comfortable in his arms; perhaps she could just go back to sleep. Cynder pressed her body against Spyro's stomach and let out a contented sigh, closing her eyes again.

A heavy knocking on the door quickly disturbed her dreams.

Choosing to ignore it, Cynder simply kept her eyes closed. Whoever it was would go away eventually, the only person she would open the door for right now was already in the room with her.

The knock sounded on her door again, disturbing the peace of the morning air once more.

Cynder felt Spyro stir behind her, pulling his wing back from over her and uncoiling his body slightly, though his arms remained wrapped around her.

"Good morning Cynder" Spyro breathed quietly in her ear, pulling his head back to nuzzle her cheek gently.

Cynder shivered and pressed harder into him. She couldn't tell if it was from the cool morning air hitting her or Spyro's actions. "Good morning Spyro." She brushed her head against Spyro's chin again, listening as he let out a low sigh.

The knock sounded at the door again, this time being much louder.

Cynder picked her head up and looked at her door. Whoever was knocking on her door was beginning to ruin her morning.

Spyro picked his head up as well, though he didn't move to untangle himself from Cynder. "Who do you think that is?"

"I don't know… but whoever is doing it is ruining my morning." The irritation was easy to pick up in Cynder's voice. Letting out an snort, Cynder lay back down against Spyro's side. "Whoever it is will go away eventually."

"Do you think it was the guardians?" Cynder felt Spyro unwrap himself from around her and stand to his feet. She quickly curled herself into a ball and set her head on her tail, watching longingly as Spyro walked towards the door.

"No, if it was them, they would have barged right in." Cynder laughed in spite of herself, her eyes closed as she lay on her bed. Apparently she was more tired than she thought.

Their questions were quickly answered as the knock on the door came again, this time accompanied by a voice. "Guys, I don't know if you can hear me, but we have to get Spyro out of there now, or there will be trouble." Zach's voice came muffled through the door to Cynder's room.

Spyro looked back at Cynder who raised her head off her tail just long enough to acknowledge him. "Let him in."

Spyro opened the door a crack only to be pushed aside as Zach barged into the room, quickly shutting the door behind him. Once he was inside, he quickly turned his attention to Spyro. "What part of 'Don't spend the whole night in there' did you not understand? The guardians are taking an early role call and if you aren't in your room when they get there, there will be trouble."

"I'm sorry Zach… I didn't think."

Zach cut Spyro off. "Stop. I can yell at you for being an idiot later. Right now we have to get you out of here or it will be all of our tails that get burnt." Zach opened the door slightly, looking both ways down the hallway before opening the door all the way and practically pushing Spyro out.

Spyro broke away from Zach and headed back towards Cynder. "Just a second Zach."

Zach protested as loudly as he dared from the hallway. "What part of 'we have to go now' did you not get. Am I not clear enough with you? The guardians are already checking the male candidate rooms and they're going to be checking ours next. We have a chance if we leave now."

"Just a second Zach…" Spyro answered casually over his shoulder as he strode back to Cynder's bed. Looking down at her, Spyro could see that she was almost asleep again. Apparently the day before had taken a lot out of her. Softly her nudged her brow with his snout. "Thanks Cynder… for letting me spend the night here. It was… nice…" Spyro cringed at his own word choice. There were a lot of other things he wanted to say there, but he kept his mouth shut.

Cynder shifted slightly on her bed, opening her eyes again to look at him. "I guess I should thank you for keeping me warm. But then again you were responsible for it being so cold." Cynder chuckled slightly before closing her eyes and letting out a sigh. "You'd better get out of here before the guardians show up."

"Yeah…" Spyro looked down at Cynder's prone form. There was something more he wanted to say

"Spyro!" Zach's harsh voice came from the hallway. "We have to go… Now!"

Spyro gave one last glance at Cynder before hurrying out the door and turning down the hallway to head back towards his room.

"Do you hear anything that comes out of my mouth?" Zach shot Spyro a disgruntled glance as padded quickly down the hallway. " This could mean big trouble for both of us."

"I though you said you would have nothing to do with hit if I got caught." Spyro passed Zach on his way into the central chamber.

"Wait." Zach scrambled after Spyro, grabbing hid tail and yanking him back against the wall. "Look" Zach pointed across the central chamber to where the guardians were entering from one of the other passageways.

"Crud…" Spyro cursed and pressed himself close to the wall to hide himself from view. "Well what do you suppose we should do now."

Zach moved so he was pressing Spyro against the wall. "Don't move, don't speak, and pray that they decide to Check Cynder and Chara's rooms first."

"What…" Spyro started to protest but was stopped by a glare from Zach.

Spyro watched with dread as the guardians turned and walked towards his hiding the hallway he and Zach were hiding in. Turning to Zach, Spyro could see a tense look on his face as he tried to keep his body pressed as close to the wall as possible.

Slowly, the guardians approached where Zach and Spyro were pressed against the wall. Spyro held his breath as he felt Zach press harder against him making them as small as possible. Volteer was walking along their side of the hallway and was dangerously close to running into them, the smaller they were the betters.

Volteer approached them at an agonizingly slow pace. The guardians were never in a hurry, and the early morning didn't help any. Step by step, Volteer approached the duo until he was directly next to them. Zach sucked in his breath as the barb on the end of Volteer's wing passed inches from his stomach.

As soon as the guardians were around the corner, Zach and Spyro broke from their position against the wall, quickly covering the central chamber and darting back to their own hallway.

"Why didn't they see us?" Spyro asked quietly as he looked over his shoulder.

Zach gave him a disgruntled look. "Did you really just ask that question?"

"Right…" Spyro only nodded as the approached their respective rooms. "Hey Zach… thanks again…"

Zach only shook his head. "Yeah whatever… but never again, and I mean it. I got little to no sleep last night and that little stunt drained me of what little energy I had." Zach let his head drop as he pushed his door open. "You think I could get a few minutes of sleep before the guardians wake us up?"

Spyro shook his head as he entered his own room. "I doubt it."

"I figured…" Zach's head bobbed towards the floor. "And Spyro…"

"What?"

"Never again." Zach closed his door with a soft thud, leaving Spyro chuckling to himself as he closed the door to his own room. Walking over to his bed, Spyro laid down and closed his eyes, he wasn't going to have to fake sleeping for the guardians when they came to check on him.

Sure enough, when the guardians came around five minutes later, both Zach and Spyro were asleep in their rooms.

Spyro was the first one to be woken up, Terrador's booming voice penetrating the thick door to his room.

"Spyro, it is time to begin the trials. Wake up and make your presence shown."

Spyro slowly dragged his head off his pillow and stood up before stumbling over to the door. Opening it, Spyro was greeted on the other side by all three guardians.

"Good to see that you're awake young Spyro. Now, lets make sure everyone else is up and go get some food before the trials begin." Terrador nodded to Spyro before moving down the hallway.

Looking around, Spyro watched as Cyril pushed Zach's door open across the hall only to have it stop halfway open. Looking quizzically at the door, Cyril pulled the door closed before pushing it open again only to have it stop in the same place, though this time it was accompanied by an irritated yell from inside.

"Alright, alright, I'm up!" Cyril once again pulled the door closed only to have Zach open it from the other side seconds later, rolling one of his shoulders in its socket. Even from across the hall Spyro could see a red mark across it. "Did you have to hit me with the door twice. A simple 'hey Zach, wake up!' would be appreciated next time.

Spyro walked out into the hall to join Zach as they waited for the guardians to Makias up. But much to their surprise, Makias walked out of his room before any of the guardians could get to it, startling all of them.

Makias only looked at them. "What? I heard all the commotion and figured it was time to get going, I was already awake anyway."

Zach yawned and rubbed a hand across his face. "He is definitely a morning person…"

"And you're not?" Spyro asked, pushing Zach.

Zach stumbled a few steps before catching his balance and glaring at Spyro. Making sure no one was looking; Zach mouthed "never again" before quickly following after the guardians that were already walking down the hall towards breakfast.

Spyro walked up to Zach playfully poking him in the side again. "Oh come on, you have to admit it was fun."

"For you maybe, I didn't get to spend the night with my girlfriend…" Zach raised his voice as loud as he dared, careful not to alert the guardians in front of them

Spyro opened his mouth, but was unable to respond after the comment.

"Just be glad they chose to check the girls rooms before ours, otherwise there wouldn't have been any way to slip past them." Zach nodded to the girls quarters as they passed through the central chambers again.

"What was that?" Zach and Spyro both jumped as they realized that Makias had come up behind them.

"Uh… nothing" Spyro answered as Zach almost stumbled over his own feet again

"Sure it wasn't. And I guess it had nothing to do with you being out and about last night did it Spyro?"

"Uh…" Spyro looked over at Zach. Zach only shook his head.

" I thought so…" Makias laughed as both of the other males looked up towards the guardians. "But don't worry about it, I have no reason to tell them. Besides, it looked like you needed to spend that time with her anyway… Spyro."

"Ha I told you!" Zach exclaimed rather loudly, pointing a finger at Spyro.

"Told me what?" Spyro shot Zach another confused look, the lack of sleep wasn't helping.

"That everyone can see what you two have, but you two." Zach said rather forcefully, nodding his head.

"Um… no you didn't…" Spyro scratched his head, it seemed he wasn't the only one who was confused.

Zach stopped, holding up his hand like he was running through something in his head. After a moment he put it back down, glaring at Spyro. "Shut up… I'm tired…"

"It's not my fault…"

Zach return glare was a mix of disbelief and seriousness. "If I wasn't so tired right now… I would kill you…"

"I think you both need to get more sleep." Makias stepped in between the two as the walked down the hallway. "Now let's go get some food. I'm starving."

Spyro nodded and followed Makias, "I'm with him, I'm hungry."

Zach only shook his head in disbelief before following the other dragons down the hall.

A few minutes later all three dragons walked into the large dinning hall where breakfast was served joining the rest of the dragons gathered there. After quickly grabbing some food, they joined Cynder and Chara at one of the tables.

"Nothing like an early morning, right guys." Makias quirked as he sat down, earning irritated glares from everyone else at the table.

"Yeah, for you maybe…" Chara rolled her eyes a s her brother sat down at the table. "We all can't be morning people Makias"

"No kidding, Just look at Zach," Cynder pointed over at Zach who had passed out with his head on the table.

"Did they really have him out all night?" Spyro asked as he glanced over at the sleeping dragon.

"I think so… I never heard him come back to his room." Makias finished by looking at Spyro and Cynder, both of them turned away at his glance.

"Anyway, why do you think the guardians got us up so early?" Chara asked, trying to break the silence forming between the tired group.

Spyro shook his head, a smile crossing his features. "I don't think you really need to ask, they have new dragons here to train, and they are all too happy to do it. I would get used to this if I were you, because it probably won't change."

"Great… just great…." Chara let out an irritated sigh before turning back to the food in front of her.

"So what exactly do the guardians have planed for today?" Makias asked from his side of the table.

"I don't know, but it looks like we're about to find out." Spyro motioned with his wing towards Terrador who was moving to the center of the room to address everyone.

"Good morning. I'm sure you're all as excited as we are to start the trials, but first let me explain some of the details. You will all be tried on different skill varying from your control over your element to your aireal skills and endurance as well as some things we won't discuss until the time comes. Unfortunately due to the loss of the last fire guardian, a dear friend to us all, we may have to cut some corners, but do not think that this will be easy. Do you all think you a ready for this?"

Six separate heads nodded in agreement.

"Very well. Remember, if at any time you feel that you don't wish to continue, you may drop out at any time. Now that we have taken care of that, why don't you all follow me to the training room and we can begin." Terrador turned and walked out of the room, quickly followed by the six candidates.

"Zach, wake up" Spyro prodded Zach in the back with his tail as he got up from the table.

Zach let out an irritated mumble as he roused himself from his sleep. "What's going on now?"

"We're headed to the training room, and you need to come with us, come on." Spyro walked out of the room, followed by Cynder. Zach quickly stood to his feet and ran out of the room after them, quickly passing up Spyro and Cynder as he moved towards the training room.

Zach walked into the arena shortly after the candidates, looking around the room once his eyes had adjusted to the light. "This? Again?" Zach groaned as the set up of the arena registered in his mind as the all to familiar ariel obstacle course the guardians had been putting him though for the last week. The six rings hung in their respective places along the edges of the wall and ceiling, reminding him of the first time he had attempted to get through the course.

"Oh, Zach, good. You're just in time. Why don't you show all of the candidates how to run through the course?" Cyril's voice grated against Zach's mind and jolted him back to full consciousness.

"Zach rubbed his face in an attempt to keep himself awake. Since Cyril had asked him to do it, there really wasn't any way to get out of it. He might as well get it out of the way now. "Alright, just give me a minute to get ready."

"Take your time…" Cyril energetic reply only aggravated Zach more as he walked to the center of the arena, readying himself for his flight.

"Hey Zach, do the guardians already have you jumping though hoops?" Cynder asked, coming up behind Zach, smiling at the irony of the situation.

Zach turned around, his face in a dead serious expression. "That was bad. That was really bad…"

Terrador's voice soon rang thought the room as he spoke instructions to the candidates. "Alright now, all of you pay attention to how Zach goes through these rings. Once he's done you will all get a chance to practice going through the rings but after that, we will be timing you."

An audible groan could be heard as Terrador told the candidates they would be timed. It was almost enough to make Zach smile… almost.

"Zach are you ready?"

Zach nodded, crouching down to better ready himself.

"Go."

Zach shot off the ground without a second thought, speeding through the air towards the first ring. Within a few seconds he was already through the first ring and speeding towards the second. The routine of flying through the rings had become almost second nature to him because of all the times the guardians had put him through the course.

Zach flew easily through the second ring before banking quickly though the third, putting him halfway through the star shaped course in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately for him, the most difficult rings were still ahead of him. In anticipation for the forth ring, Zach banked out towards the outside wall. He could still remember what had happened the first time he attempted the course and he wasn't planning on repeating it.

Seconds before Zach hit the ring, he quickly rolled onto his side in the air before pushing his wings away from the wall, forcing his body towards the wall just as he flew over the outcrop that held the ring. Zach watched as the ring seemed to move in front of him, his body reaching the center of the ring just as he passed through it. Reaching out with his arms, Zach felt his body come into contact with the outside wall, quickly pushing off from the wall as he felt his talons grate against the stone. Zach's momentum carried him out of the outcropping, allowing him to bank back through the center of the arena.

Pumping his wings for momentum, Zach angled up towards the ring suspended from the top of the arena. A few feet from the ring, Zach rolled onto his back and pulled his wings against his sides allowing his body to cost up to the ring. As he passed through the ring Zach arched his back trying to squeeze his body through the small area between the ring and the ceiling. Pressing his head against his neck, he watched as his body gracefully slid between the ring and the ceiling, not even his tail coming in contact with the obstacles.

A grin now covering his face, Zach angled his body into a nosedive, plunging towards the ground before twisting around and unfurling his wings, snapping his body back into forward flight. Looking in front of him, Zach could see the final ring hanging against the wall. It was so small that it would require him to press his wings as closely to his body as possible to get through and even then he would probably catch his tail or a claw as he passed through.

Approaching the ring, Zach let his body drop so he was flying just below the edge of the ring, then when he was mere feet from the ring, gave an exceptionally strong flap of his wings that propelled himself up and level with the center of the ring. Pulling his wings tightly against his body, Zach curled into himself slightly to fit his whole body through the ring. As he passed through, he could feel the smooth metallic bars of the rings forcing his wings tighter against his body as the flayed edges of his wings brushed against the bars.

As quickly as he had approached the ring, he was through it quickly snapping open his wings and banking away from the wall, turning back towards the center of the arena. Upon reaching the center, Zach tilted his body backwards, pumping his wings a few times before gracefully setting his feet on the ground. Looking over, Zach saw Terador nod his head in approval

"Well done Zach, I think that may be one of your best times yet. But there is one thing you forgot to do…" As Terador spoke, a dark shroud formed behind Zach, rising up into the air before clearing to show a training dummy mere feet behind Zach. Without another moments notice the dummy lunged at Zach, only to be cleaved in two by Zach's tail as he flicked it behind him.

Terador gave Zach another approving smile, "well done, well done. Its good to see that your reaction time hasn't slowed."

"You've tried that trick on me almost daily now, I would hope I could see it coming." Zach glanced over at the guardians and the candidates, his head drooping from an obvious lack of sleep.

"Alright Zach, I believe that is all we need from you right now, you are free to go."

"Thank you…" Zach nodded his head once before turning away from the other dragons and walking towards the hall. As soon as his back was turned to the guardians, a grin slowly spread its way across his face.

"What's he so happy about?" Spyro asked as Zach grinned widely.

Cynder leaned over and spoke in his ear, "you haven't watched him train much have you?"

"No, why?" Spyro had been more occupied with recuperating and his own thoughts to ever bother sticking around one of Zach's lessons, not that he would have wanted to anyway.

Cynder spoke with mirth in her voice. "That's actually the first time he's ever gone through the course without messing up."

"Really? That is kind of funny."

"I know, but I'm kind of glad he did. I would have hated to screw up in front of people."

" Yeah I know…" Spyro looked over Cynder to the center of the arena. "Speaking of Zach, where is he going? Zach! Where are you going?" Spyro called after the white dragon as he walked down the hall.

"Back to sleep." Zach's disgruntled reply rang back down the hallway as he turned a corner disappearing from sight. Spyro and Cynder only watched and laughed.

"Did you really keep him up that late?" Cynder whispered quietly so only Spyro could hear.

"No, I didn't. The guardians must have had him out all night though." Spyro shook his head as they both turned back around to watch the candidates.

"Looks like we're not the only ones worried about him." Cynder motioned with her head towards the candidates. Chara was standing with her head craned over her shoulder looking at where Zach had disappeared down the hall.

"Hmm… I wonder what she's thinking?" Spyro asked, walking over and laying down on the side of the arena.

"Oh I think I've got a pretty good idea…" Cynder smiled to herself as she lay down next to Spyro.

"And why is that?" Spyro turned away from the guardians and looked Cynder in the face.

Cynder immediately caught herself, she didn't want to talk about what happened that night. "I've got my reasons…" Cynder trailed off, hoping Spyro would leave the conversation where it was.

"Alright then." Spyro looked at her questioningly before shrugging and turning his attention back to the arena. "Look, Comet's about to go. I wonder how he'll do."

Cynder only smiled as she moved her body slightly closer to Spyro's "I wonder how they'll all do."

Chara walked absent mindedly through the hallways, her body slightly sore from the exertion of that morning testing. It had gone quite well for her aside form the harassment from the other candidates, but she had put a stop to that by showing them all up on the ring course. Flint had said her feminine form gave her an "unfair advantage" but she had only laughed at his comment. If those boys thought she was just going to drop out, they had another thing coming.

That was part of the reason she was walking through the hallways by herself. She needed some time away from the other candidates to compose her thoughts. She would have spent the time with Cynder, but she seemed occupied talking with Spyro when the guardians had allowed them on a break so she figured she wouldn't bother her. Most of the guys had gone back to the dining hall to get food or had gone outside to do… well whatever it was those guys did… so she decided to walk the opposite way, thus leading her on a path around the inside of the temple.

She now found herself in the vast central chamber of the temple. Pathways branched out on all sides leading to different parts of the temple, leaving her wondering which way she should go. Unable to decide which way to do, Chara lay down and rolled onto her back, looking up at the intricate stonework on the ceiling.

As she lay there breathing softly in the quiet of the temple, Chara finally noticed that there was another sound coming form somewhere else in the room. Rolling back onto her feet, Chara turned her head around, trying to find the source of the sound. As she focused on the sound, she quickly identified it as simple rhythmic breathing coming from one side of the room. Someone had to be asleep in the room.

Looking over towards the source of the noise, she could see a stark white lump contrasting sharply against the brown of the temple walls.

"Zach?" Chara craned her head to get a closer look. Sure enough, Zach was passed out cold along the wall of the central chamber, his head barely hanging on to some kind of cushion he had found around the room. Turning her body, Chara quietly padded over to where Zach was lying on the ground.

As she approached him, Zach's eyes flickered open before focusing on Chara.

Chara smiled sheepishly before looking at the ground. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

Zach rubbed his eyes and rolled onto his stomach. "Don't worry about it. It's not like I'm in the most ideal of locations anyway."

"Yeah…" Chara looked at the surrounding room. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Sleeping?" Zach gave Chara a confused look.

"Well I know that, but why?"

"Because I was tired?" Again Zach thought the answer was obvious.

Chara let out an irritated huff. "But why didn't you go back to your room?"

"I was too tired, and this place looked as good as any." Zach

Chara looked down the hallway towards Zach's room. "Those ten extra steps were too much for you?"

"It was more than ten, and yes. You weren't up all night though, so don't hound me for trying to get some sleep." Zach stretched out on the ground before setting his feet beneath him "So how was your training? Better than mine I would assume."

"You went through training with the guardians?" Chara's curious nature was getting the better of her.

Zach stood to his feet, brushing up against Chara's side as he stood, sending a shiver down her spine. "Yeah, though what you're going through in a few moths they put me though in a week. It wasn't very much fun to say the least, and I cant say I'm much better out of it either."

"I'm sure you got something out of it," skepticism laced Chara's voice.

"Not nearly as much as I would like, though if I'm lucky it won't really matter." Zach began walking down the hall with Chara close behind him.

"Why is that?"

Zach stopped and caught himself before turning around to face Chara again. "It's a long story. One I'm not quite ready to tell anyone.

"Oh…" Chara looked down at the ground, thinking she had pushed too far into Zach's past. "I didn't mean to…"

Zach cut her off "don't worry about it. Its nothing like that… its just very… personal."

Chara continued walking beside Zach though the temple halls "So, if you don't mind me asking… what can you do exactly? I haven't ever seen a dragon quite like you."

Zach laughed out loud before continuing. "Everyone seems to say the same thing. To say the very least, I'm not exactly from around here. And for what I can do, I can tell you. The guardians told me to keep it a secret from you and the other candidates. So you're out of luck there."

"Oh come on, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone else…" Chara looked up at Zach pleadingly.

Zach shook his head "not going to happen."

Chara quickly dropped the pleading look off her face, her voice dropping to an irritated growl "it was worth a shot."

"Yeah, well you're not getting anything out of me until the guardians say so. By the way, I don't think you ever answered my question about how your training was going. I can relate to what you're going though." Zach's mind drifted back to the first time he attempted the ring course.

"It's not that hard…" Chara shrugged, "the only real pain is the fact that I'm the only girl here… and the guys never let me forget it…"

"That's not entirely true, Cynder's here as well…"

Chara shook her head, "yeah, but she isn't one of the candidates, and she runs off and disappears with Spyro every chance she gets…"

Zach couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"What?"

"Those two… I don't really understand them." Zach shook his head. "But I guess I can't really be one to judge, I haven't even been in something like they are now…"

"So you've never had a girlfriend…"

Zach's head drooped, "when you put it like that it sounds so depressing… but no I haven't…"

The two rounded a corner to see Terrador standing in the hallway, walking over to them; Terrador nodded before beginning to speak.

"Ah Chara, there you are. The next trial will be starting here in a few minutes, why don't you head back to the training room."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you later then Zach." Chara slowly removed herself from alongside Zach and walked back towards the training room. Looking over her shoulder as she left.

After making sure Chara had rounded the corner, Terador looked down at Zach. "Zach, I've been meaning to talk with you." Terrador stopped for a moment, carefully picking his words. "I think that you're ready enough, and that Spyro has recovered enough, for you to go seek the chronicler."

"Really?" Zach found it hard to keep his voice under control as he heard the news.

"Yes, however, we can't let you leave just yet. We need your help along with Spyro and Cynder to train the candidates for a short while longer. You won't have to stay for the entirety of their training, but it will be at least another week until we can let you go."

"Oh," Zach's disappointment showed as he dropped his head. "Then why are you telling me now?"

Terrador smiled, "to keep you out of trouble, we can't have you worrying about it and stirring up trouble trying to find out when you could leave. Just relax Zach, its only another week, I'm sure you will be fine. Who knows, perhaps you will make some new friends." Terador gestured down the hallway where Chara had just left them.

"Yeah, maybe…" Zach rubbed his head, he would be able to leave soon, he just had to make it through the week. Unfortunately, knowing the guardians, that week wouldn't be easy.

"One more thing Zach," Terrador caught Zach's attention again. "Remember to not let any of the candidates know of your powers. It would be best for all of us, you included, if they didn't know."

"I know Terrador," Zach replied with a nod.

"Alright then, we won't need you for the rest of the day, so you are free to do as you wish."

Zach couldn't help but smile, "thank you."

Terador turned and head towards the training room. "…Just be sure to move to your room if you're going to sleep. It's very inconvenient to have a sleeping dragon in the central chamber."

Zach grinned again before turning and walking back down the hallway towards his own room. It was going to be a week, and he would be counting the days. But with the guardians using him to help with the training, it definitely wasn't going to be an easy one. He was going to get sleep every chance he could get.

Footfalls echoed off the cold stone around him as a lonely ape raced through an underground passageway. With only his memory to guide him, he had to be extremely careful not to make a wrong turn in the twisting catacombs leading to their lair. If he made one wrong turn, he could very well be lost in the catacombs forever. No one would look for him, no one would care.

Twisting around a final corner, the ape was relieved to see firelight coming through the end of the hallway. He had made it. But now that one part of his journey had ended, an even more perilous one began. This scout carried news from his unit, news that his commanded needed to know. News that could also send his commander into a fit of rage.

Breaking his stride, the short scout slowed to a walk before entering the large front door of the stone fortress carved into the side of the cave. It served as their base of operations since the fall of Malefor and had gone completely undetected by the dragons, for all they knew the large majority of remaining apes had simply dropped off the face of the earth. In a matter of speaking, they were right.

Slowly, the ape approached another set of doors leading to a large central chamber, he knew that behind the doors his commander sat in wait. This may be the last time he ever entered another room.

Slowly, the scout pushed open the heavy door, cringing as it squealed on its hinges spreading the sound around the room.

"What do you want?" The sound of his commander's voice sent shivers down the scout's spine. Quickly, he moved and kneeled before his commander.

The scout looked at the ground, his voice trembling in fear. "Sir… I have news from the scouts you sent out to watch the dragons…"

"Well spit it out then." Impatience showed through in the commander's voice.

"The dragons left early in the morning yesterday, when they returned they were al accompanied by other dragons, all of them appearing young in age. The group has remained hidden in the forest around the temple like you have commanded, no one has noticed us yet. We just felt that you would need to know about theses new developments…"

"What do I care about a few more dragons, they are all filth that need to be cleared off the face of the earth." The scout flinched as the commanders booming voice rattled his ears.

"You never know commander, there may be some useful information we could learn about them." The scout glanced out of the corner of his eye to see the disfigured form of Simian standing up next to the commander. "And then there's the face that the white dragon is still with them. I'm still curious about him." Simian cleared the dirt out from underneath his fingernails, seeming uninterested in the fate of the dragons or the scout trembling before them.

"What do I care about them? They're still filth and I will still kill them all."

"You'll never learn anything from them if they are all dead. And besides, if they are at the temple, they are probably all skilled fighters. Perhaps we can learn the best way to kill them and apply it to the rest of the dragon population" Simian's flat tone of voice caught the scout off guard. If anyone else had talked to their commander like that they would have been run through with a sword before they had tome to blink.

The commander grunted. "Hmm, watch them further. Let's see if they can lead us to more information."

"Yes sir…" the short ape turned to leave the room, eager to leave the feared leader and the disfigured form or his advisor behind him.

"Oh and one more thing…" the ape stopped dead in his tracks, fearful of his leaders next actions. "…Tell the others that if they are ever discovered by one of the dragons… to kill them all. And I don't think they need to be reminded of the price for failure…"

"Yes sir…" the scout turned and hurried out of the room, quickly shutting the door behind him. Once the door was closed, he turned and ran out of the stronghold back into the winding catacombs, headed back to the unit from where he came happy to still be alive.

The lead ape shook his head as he watched the scout scramble to leave. "Simian, I often wonder why I still keep you alive."

Simian responded with an all too polite smile. "Sir, with all respect. You may be a wondrous leader, but you lack the grace and elegance for diplomacy."

The head ape only snorted. "There is no need for diplomacy in this world, whatever we want, we take; and we kill whoever gets in our way."

Simian only shook his head. "In time maybe we will hold that power, but for now we must rely somewhat on what allies we can muster. You will see what I mean once I have secured this next agreement with our new allies. Once they join our ranks, we will take away the one thing the dragons hold over our heads."

The large ape turned to face Simian, his face showing traces of genuine interest. "And tell me Simian, what is that? What do the dragons have over our power?"

Simian smiled, turning his face up to look at the roof of the cave. "Simple my commander. With our new allies, we shall take away the power of the skies."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A Week of training.

"Zach… Zach wake up!"

Zach shifted from his sleep, he already knew who it was, and he already knew what they wanted.

"Zach, the guardians said that you need to get up with the rest of us, so get up."

Zach turned onto his side and mumbled through a clouded mind. "Alright Makias, I'm up" rolling onto his stomach, Zach stood to his feet while wiping the sleep from his eyes. He thought that after all the days he had spent waking up for the guardians early morning training that he would be used to it by now, but the fact that his mind was screaming at him to go back to sleep meant that he wasn't anywhere near adjusted.

"Alright, Spyro's waiting for us outside. Lets get going so we can grab some food before this morning training begins."

Nodding, Zach followed Makias out of his room, meeting Spyro on the other side before the trio walked down towards breakfast. As they walked into the central chamber of the temple, Cynder greeted them and joined their group, electing to walk next to Spyro.

As they moved down the hall, Zach's mind cleared from the fog of sleep. Aside form having to get up early, he was actually enjoying the early mornings. The cool morning air and the deep shadows cast by the not yet risen sun always seemed to put him in a good mood. And since the guardians were now taking car of patrolling the halls at night, he didn't have to worry about losing too much sleep during the night.

Zach glanced over his shoulder at Spyro; the fact that one of the guardians was patrolling during the night also meant that his late night trips across the temple to Cynder's room had ended. Zach almost felt sorry for him… almost. He could still remember the chaos of trying to sneak Spyro back to his room in the early morning. Spyro's relationship with Cynder hadn't seemed to change though. They were still as awkward around each other as they had ever been, but they did seem to spend more time around each other then they used to.

Zach smiled to himself. A lot had happened in the four days since all of the candidates had showed up. Most of them had become fast friends and all of them seemed to get along together even with the constant rivalry with the training.

Makias and Zach had become quick friends. With all of the downtime from not being a major part of the training and with Spyro and Cynder sometimes caught up in their own conversations they found themselves with hours to waste together. Makias possessed a keen mind and an odd sense of ingenuity. Zach often found himself talking with Makias about one odd contraption or another to waste the time away. Since he had been partial trained by his mother as a medic, he quickly became the candidates unofficial healer, taking care of their various scrapes and bruises from the days training. Zach would often find himself helping Makias because his innate sense of medicine, though he had to be careful not to expose himself around any of the other dragons.

Through the week, all the time he spent around the candidates gave him a good sense of their personalities. All of them had come through the room Makias was using as an infirmary at some point of the week, and since there wasn't much else to do, Zach often found himself talking with them.

Unlike her brother, Chara displayed a very active personality. Her actions often gave her a tom boy reputation and Zach often saw her showboating with the rest of the guys. It was very easy to see why the guardians had picked her as on of the candidates. Her skills closely matched up with that of the males in the group, but whatever she may have lacked in skill, she easily made up for in willpower. A fierce determination always burned behind her eyes, which was part of the reason she held her own in the candidacy. While her determination showed in the trails, she displayed unmistakable female characteristics when not going through her training. She still held the vast amount of active energy that Zach found uncomfortable at times, but showed an odd timidness with things she was unfamiliar with. Zach wasn't sure how she was able to transition so easily into the training, but her energetic disposition made her a pleasurable person to be around. It was a good thing seeing as she spent most of her spare time with Makias, and Makais spent his time with Zach and the others.

Flint proved to be about as annoying as Zach's initial impression predicted him to be. He had a great deal of confidence in his own abilities, and while some of his confidence was justified by his abilities, he came across as headstrong and overconfident to all of the other young dragons. Physically, he was stronger than the other candidates, but his thinking was often too straight foreword to overcome any problem he couldn't force himself though. He held strong to his own opinions, and he often let the other dragons know what they were regardless of the occasion. Zach had seen quite a few people, Chara and Cynder especially, glaring at the back of his head on multiple occasions. Regardless of his attitude, Zach would have put him in the top three for the candidacy from his abilities alone.

Comet turned out to be a lot like they all feared as well. With a speech pattern almost as fast as Volteer's and the physical energy to match, Zach often found himself worn out just from standing near the dragon. In an obvious relation, his greatest attribute in the testing was his speed. He could easily out fly any of the other candidates, and watching his attack training dummies often left Zach surprised by just how fast the dragon could move. Surprisingly, even with his odd quirks, most of the dragons found Comet fun to be around. Once the initial barrage of questions passed, Comet became a funny and likeable person, though his presence could still only be tolerated in portions.

Crispen had a kind of dull personality at first, but after Zach spent a few hours alone with the dragon, he found that Crispen held a keen intelligence. He knew a lot about the world around him, and even more about his own element. He knew of almost every technique know to fire dragons and could perform most of them himself. Outside of his inner personality though, Crispen was a very reclusive dragon. Rather than spending time around the temple like most of the other candidates, he often secluded himself in his room studying. When he was outside of his room training, Zach often found himself captivated by Crispen's ability. During the physical training regiments, he often implemented unique and sometimes outlandish maneuvers to defeat his opponents, and he always preformed his maneuvers with frightening success. As odd as the dragon seemed, Zach wouldn't want to go against him in a fight

Felix turned out to be the shy one of the group. In the initial days of training, he was often the one who struggled. He didn't speak much to the other candidates, and when he did his head was always turned towards the ground. Zach couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for the young dragon. On the few initial occasions Zach talked to Felix, Felix talked mostly of how he was the only young dragon in a small village far from Warfang. He hadn't even been out of his village before, let alone by himself, and the new experience was frightening to him to say the least. But even with his shy nature, Felix turned out to be a very personable dragon. All it took was Zach, Spyro, and Cynder cornering him in the temple to get him out of his shell. He still remained quiet around the other dragons and still stuttered occasionally when he got nervous, but his nervousness didn't show in his training anymore, and his true abilities began to show.

Felix surpassed all of the other candidates in the ability to control his element. The raw skill he used to control his element combined with an immense endurance left all the other candidates in the dust.

Ashe was a completely different story from any of the other candidates. He may not have possessed some of the immense abilities of the other candidates, but he used what abilities he had to overcome many of his obstacles. He showed a fierce determination much like Chara, and after talking with Ashe on a few occasions, Zach found out that it was partially due to the loss of his father. Ashe's father had died just after the resurrection of Malefore helping his family flee to Warfang, leaving him, his mother, and his brother to fend for themselves. Because he had to provide for his mother and brother, Ashe matured faster than other dragons his age. He was always the one settling disputes between the other candidates and aced like an older brother to some of the candidates. Out of all the candidates, Zach thought Ashe showed the most potential for earning the position. Zach had to like him too; they got along well together. Out of all the different candidates, Ashe seemed to have the fewest intolerable quirks to deal with.

Zach puled himself out of his thoughts as he saw a large blue figure walking down the hall. His head dropped as he realized Cyril was headed for him.

"Zach, I need you to wear this for the rest of the day." Cyril pulled out a long string with a bright orange ribbon tied to the center. Moving behind Zach, Cyril tied it tightly around his neck before Zach had time to protest.

Gagging, Zach ran a talon underneath the necklace pulling it away from his neck slightly so that it rested comfortably on his chest. "Ok, now that I'm not choking, why exactly do I need to wear this?" Zach looked down at the necklace. From what he could tell it was a simple piece of braided string and the ribbon was nothing more than colored cloth.

Cyril simply smiled at Zach, "You will find out later, don't worry about it." Turning around, Cyril moved quickly down one of the corridors before disappearing around a corner.

"And why doesn't that make me any more comfortable?" Zach asked as he walked Cyril disappear.

"I don't know… maybe because one of the guardians just came up to you, tied something a round your neck, and left without telling you what was going on…" Zach turned around to see Makais smirking with Spyro and Cynder trying to hide their laughter.

"This can't be good." Zach pulled at the necklace again, trying to get it to sit more comfortably on his neck.

"Probably not, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can't do anything about it anyway." Spyro stifled his laugher long enough to talk to Zach.

"I guess your right." Zach shrugged and stooped messing with the string around his neck.

Makias spoke up, "so what are you guys doing today? From what the guardians said, the candidates won't be doing anything to injure themselves today so I guess we've pretty much got the day to ourselves."

"I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being stuck inside this temple." Cynder walked through the group of guys, catching their attention as she started walking out of the temple. "Why don't we actually go somewhere today?"

Spyro, Makais, and Zach all looked at each other before quickly following after Cynder. "Shouldn't we tell someone where we're going?" Zach asked them all half-heartedly, he didn't really want or expect an answer

"No, they won't need us today." Spyro answered from in front of him.

"Where are we going anyway?" Zach asked as they reached the platform on the outside of the temple. Outside the sun was shining, giving them an unrestricted view of the surrounding valley. Zach only smiled as he felt the sun warm his scales and wings. Looking around it seemed like the others were enjoying the same feeling. "And what about breakfast? I'm still hungry."

"I don't know, we'll hunt something along the way, but lets put some distance between us and here." Cynder grinned before taking a running leap off the balcony, disappearing from sight as she dropped towards the ground. Zach saw a grin spread across Spyro's face before he chased Cynder off the edge of the balcony a s well.

Seconds later, both Spyro and Cynder appeared off the edge of the balcony, both of them very low to the ground and already a good way away from the temple. Both of them spun around each other in a stunning display of aerial acrobatics.

"I may not be one for acrobatics, but who's to say that they should have all the fun." Makias ran off the balcony as well, the mirth becoming contagious. Soon Makias appeared off the edge of the balcony as well, headed towards Spyro and Cynder who were now turning lazy circles in the air a ways from the temple.

Zach felt a grin spread across his face. It felt good to get out of the temple again. Taking a running leap, Zach jumped off the balcony. Gravity quickly took hold of his body and sent him plummeting towards the ground. He streamlined his body, gaining as much speed as he could before flaring his wings just above the ground. Zach shot across the ground, quickly catching up with the rest of the group. Banking back up to their height, Zach slowed his speed so he was hovering next to the others in the air.

"So where are we going?"

"I know somewhere we could go." Cynder spoke up again

"As long as it's not here, I really don't care." Makias voiced everyone's thoughts. "Lead the way."

Chara walked down the hallway towards the training room, it was time to see what the guardians had in for them today. The past few days had left her with a variety of scrapes and bruises from the guardians' difficult, if not odd, series of challenges, but an odd sense of excitement hovered in the air today. The guardians had not thrown them straight into a challenge in the morning; instead, they allowed the candidate the morning off, saying something a bout a unique challenge later. Now that time had come, and all of the candidates moved anxiously towards the room where Terador was waiting

Moving into the large room, Chara saw Terrador in the center of the room, Flint, Ashe, and Crispen all sat in the room as well, waiting for the guardian to start. Chara walked over and sat down next to Ashe, earning a warm smile from the male dragon.

"So what do you think they have in store for us today?"

"I have no idea." Ashe looked over at Terrador, who stood stone silent in the center of the room. "He hasn't move or said anything since we got here."

"So just like normal then?"

"Yeah, just like normal." Ashe replied with another smile.

"Look, there's Felix and Comet. Maybe now we can get started.

Felix walked into the room just before Comet, desperately trying to look anywhere but at the blabbering dragon behind him. Comet trotted after him, trying to engage Felix in a conversation he wasn't interested in at all; something about his hometown.

"Well then, now that everyone's here, we can begin." Terrador's voice startled everyone as the turned to attention.

"First things first, Felix, did you do what I asked?" Terador turned to the young red dragon.

"Yes, uh… he should be here in a minute." Felix glanced over his shoulder to look down the hallway. "Um… in fact… I think he's here now."

Chara watched as an unmistakable glowing object flew into the room.

"Ahh… Sparx, will you come here for a moment?

"Uh yeah… sure big guy. What do ya need?"

Terrador scowled, "come here for a moment, this needs to be done silently." Sparx flew over and hovered next to Terrador.

The candidates watched as Terrador talked silently with the glowing dragonfly.

Sparx leaned back from the large dragon, confusion evident on his face. "Seriously?"

Terador nodded, "go on now, I'm waiting for you now."

The confusion on Sparx' face slowly faded to a dull amusement. "Well I guess it might as well be him." Sparx turned and flew out the window, disappearing from sight.

The candidates looked back to Terrador, expecting him to continue. Instead the large guardian sat quietly on his haunches, leaving the candidates in silence.

Chara looked across the room, each of the other candidates seemed as confused as she was. Making eye contact with Ashe, she shot him the question that everyone was asking in their heads. Ashe only shook his head and shrugged before turning his attention back to Terrador.

Minutes passed and Terrador remained silent, seeming lost in his own thoughts as the candidates sat around him each of them as confused as the others. Each of them remained quiet though; fearing what the guardian was up to and wondering if this was some kind of test for them.

Fifteen minutes passed before Terrador spoke again.

"Alright then, I think it's been long enough…"

"Long enough for what?" Comet's voice broke into Terrador's conversation, earning him stern glances from everyone else in the room.

Terador let out a sigh before continuing. "As I was saying, I think I've waited long enough to explain what your challenge for today is. It will be the only thing we require of you today, but how fast you accomplish it is completely up to you. The only time limit on this is that the challenge will end at sundown. Am I understood?" Terrador waited until all of the candidates had acknowledged him. "Good. Now I will explain what exactly your challenge is. It won't be easy, but it is possible. And even though you are all competing against each other, you will have to work as a group to get this done."

Terador watched as some of the candidates rolled their eyes.

"Relax, I think you will all have fun with this one…"

Cynder led the quartet of dragons away from the temple, quickly putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the temple. After a few minutes of flying Cynder signaled to them before rolling onto her back and diving towards the ground.

Looking down, Zach could see a clear lake stretching out below them. Cynder was just finishing her dive and disappeared into the lake with a splash sending the sparkling water up into the air.

"Well we might as well go join her." Makias yelled back up over his shoulder at the other guys. Spyro was thinking the same thing as he had already banked over to follow Cynder down into the water.

"Race you to the bottom." Zach shouted back before following Spyro's dive. Makias was quick to react, angling down and quickly overtaking Zach.

Zach saw Cynder's body break the surface of the water just before Spyro and Makias hit the water in front of him. Closing his eyes, Zach felt himself plunge in to the cool water headfirst. Opening his eyes underwater he was awed by what he saw.

The crystal clear water provided him with an unrestricted view of the entire lake under the water. Spyro and Makias were next to him under the water, trials of bubbles trailing off of all their bodies towards the surface. Above him, he could see Cynder's body on the surface of the water, no doubt waiting for them to return to the surface.

Flaring his wings, Zach pushed himself towards the surface. The movements of his wings were strikingly similar to flying, but the resistance and buoyancy caused by the water allowed him to go farther with one stroke of his wings. Within two strokes, Zach broke the surface of the water, a grin plastered on his face.

"I have to say Cynder, this was a great idea." Zach spoke to the group as Spyro and Makias broke the surface beside them

"Yeah, well it's a lot more fun when you aren't dragged into it." Cynder glanced over at Spyro who only laughed.

"Or when you aren't forced into almost drowning yourself…" Zach commented, bringing stares from the rest of the group. "I'll have to explain that one sometime."

"Yeah… you will, but as for right now…" Spyro smiled mischievously, "Makias, you're it." Jumping thorough the water, Spyro tackled Makias under the water. Zach and Cynder were quick to react, putting distance between themselves and Makias.

"As much fun as this is, I've been doing things like this all week and I am ready for a nap." Zach said, watching as Makias chased Spyro back through the water.

"Oh come on Zach…" Cynder looked at him from her spot a few feet away. "Have some fun. Bedsides, I don't think you're going to get much of a choice."

"Huh?" Zach followed Cynder's line of sight to see a dark blur racing towards him under the water.

Zach only had time to take a breath before he felt a body tackle him under the water. Once he finished tumbling through the water, Zach opened his eyes to see Makias pushing away from him, a grin plastered across his face.

Righting himself, Zach pushed his way to the surface of the water, taking a breath and scanning the surface for any sign of the others. He wasn't going to be able to get out of this now. A dark splotch under the water caught his attention and Zach quickly dove after it.

Once he was under the water, Zach quickly identified Cynder streaking away from him underwater. Pumping his wings, Zach shot after her, quickly closing the gap between them. Quickly getting within feet of Cynder's streamlined body, Zach reached out to tag her, only to have her bank off in a different direction. His larger wings may have given him the speed advantage underwater, but he was still no match for Cynder's agility.

Flaring his wings to stop himself, Zach turned and shot off towards Cynder again. Once again he closed the distance to mere feet, only to have Cynder dart away from him again. Frustrated, Zach broke the surface of the water again, taking another deep breath.

Slowly, a sly grin spread across his face. He couldn't catch up to Cynder, and he probably wouldn't have much luck with Makias or Spyro either, but who said he had to chase them at all? Letting himself sink back underwater, Zach found Cynder staring at him a few feet away, her teeth showing in an evil grin. Zach grinned back, channeling a small amount of energy through his body and watching in amusement as shock covered Cynder's face as he disappeared from sight.

Pushing with his wings again, Zach shot off towards Cynder, though he didn't head straight for her, instead choosing to watch from a distance as she frantically scanned the water. It was kind of amusing to him. She was looking in the complete opposite direction, meaning he didn't need to hide anymore. Pushing with his arms, Zach moved up behind the otherwise oblivious Cynder, reaching out and touching her on the shoulder with one of his talons.

Cynder spun around quickly, reflexively swinging with her tail forcing Zach to push himself out of the way with his wings. As the water stopped his movement, Zach looked to see Cynder glaring at him, only to watch it turn to a playful smile as she dove after him. Zach pushed again with his wings, this time sending him up and over Cynder as she shot through the water. Cynder shot underneath him, but instead of coming back after him, she shot off after another dragon in the water a few feet away. Zach guessed it was Spyro.

As Cynder chased the dragon through the water, Zach found himself alone. It didn't bother him, and it would give him a chance to get out of the water.

Gliding easily through the water, Zach made his way through the lake and onto its sandy shore. Spotting a shady spot not too far away, he moved and set himself down on the grass with a heavy sigh. As much as he enjoyed the water, he couldn't enjoy it nearly as much as he usually did. This wasn't his home, and the longer he spent here, the more the thoughts weighed on him. Sure he had made some good friends, but with the terror and hardship this world put him through hardly seemed worth it.

Zach sighed again as he saw Spyro and Cynder race through the water near him. He really hated not telling them anything, but they didn't need to be drawn into more problems than they had already gone through. Hopefully he could get back home with them none the wiser as to where he had come from. It was supposed to only be a few more days before the guardians let him go respond to the chroniclers beckon

But maybe he was getting his hopes up for nothing. Nothing said that the chronicler was going to be able to do anything. He might have to reconcile himself to being stuck here if that was the case…

Zach shook his head, willing himself not to think about that option. He would get home, one way or another.

To tell the truth, when he did make it home, he would miss this world in a sense. At least the parts of it that didn't involve fighting for his life. The freedom, the innocence, it really was something different than what he was used to. He would miss flying the most. Nothing could ever compare to freedom or excitement that flying brought.

Stretching out his wings, Zach took a moment to examine them in detail. They were much larger than his body, but he couldn't tell by how much. Thin but strong membranes covered the spaces between sturdy bone and ligaments that spanned out from a joint near his shoulders. It was truly amazing that he could fly with his two wings alone.

Zach let out another heavy sigh and set his head onto the soft grass, he just wanted the whole ordeal to be over with

"Hey, are you ok?" Zach looked up to see Cynder on the edge of the water, looking over at him with concern.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine… I'm just thinking. Shouldn't you be doing something?" Zach motioned towards a blur in the water that could only be Spyro and Makias.

"No, neither of them could catch me if they tried." Cynder laughed as she waded out of the water ruffling her wings and sending water droplets everywhere. "They may be faster in the water, but they can't exactly stop themselves.

"Well then what does that make me?" Zach laughed as he saw a slight scowl cover Cynder's face

"That doesn't count..."

"Alright then." Zach smiled as Cynder walked up from the edge of the water, a disgruntled look on her face.

"So what's on your mind?" Cynder held a curious expression on her face, though Zach had a suspicion that she knew what was eating him. She seemed to have that ability.

"Just thinking of home… not to be rude, but I really want to get out of here."

"I don't blame you, but I still don't get why you haven't just left yet."

Zach shook his head, "I wish it was that simple, but I'm really not sure how I'm supposed to get home. To tell the truth, right now I'm hanging on to a slim hope that I might figure out what I'm supposed to do, and what slim idea I do have, forces me to wait just a little bit longer."

"What's so important that you need us for?" You've kind of left us in the dark as to what you need exactly, and I hate to say it, but we do have reasons to be suspicious." Cynder moved and set herself down a comfortable distance away from Zach,

Zach let out an aggravated sigh; they had a right to know why they were involved, but he still had instructions from the guardians not to tell them anything. It was only supposed two or three more days at most. Then he could get out of here. "I don't blame you, but I can't really say; not yet anyway. I would tell you if I could, but like you said, I'm not exactly in the best standings with the guardians."

"I don't see why you can't just tell us."

"I think they just wanted to make sure Spyro didn't do anything rash, and I have a suspicion they just didn't want to do all the work with the candidates."

Cynder stifled her laugher at Zach's last comment. "I know exactly what you mean"

"Yeah, they're a bit overbearing sometimes, but I suppose part of it is to make sure we don't leave the temple…" Zach stopped as his thoughts registered in his own mind.

"Dang it, If they notice we're all gone…" Zach immediately stood to his feet and unfurled his wings, shaking the fatigue out of his limbs. Hopefully he could get back before the guardians thought they had left prematurely

"Relax, they know we're out here." Cynder's cool voice stopped Zach from taking off.

"What do you mean?" Zach tucked his wings against his sides and turned back to face Cynder

"The guardians know we're out here". Cynder wore a smirk on her face as she looked across the distance between her and Zach.

"Ok, you lost me. We didn't tell anyone where we were going this morning." Zach looked worriedly over at Cynder. "How would they know where we were?"

"Well… they're actually the ones that sent us out here." Cynder turned her head up and looked at the tree line, "in fact, I think its about time to start…"

"Start? Start what?" Zach looked worriedly at Cynder as she scanned the trees. He didn't like where this was going

"Ah, here he is…" Cynder and Zach watched as a yellow blur descended from the tops of the trees and settled down in front of them.

"Sparx? What are you doing here?" Zach looked questioningly at the dragonfly before glancing over at Cynder.

"Sheesh, you would think with a fifteen minute head start it would take them longer to catch up…"

"Catch up? Who are you running from?"

Sparx turned around to face Zach. "Ah, there you are. And I'm not running from them, I'm running ahead of them. They're all chasing after something else. If you ask me, it's about time they made you do something useful…"

"Sparx, what are you talking about…" Zach held his voice steady as to not betray the muscles tensing in his body."

"Oh right, you don't know do you? Well I suppose I better explain before they get here… you see… the task the guardians gave the candidates today was to retrieve a certain item from a certain dragon. I'm guessing you see where this is going."

Zach looked down at the ribbon tied around his neck. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Afraid not. I guess you'll spend your day running from some over eager candidates. Watch out for Flint, he seemed all to eager to have to hunt someone down."

"Oh great…" Zach muttered as he walked out into a clearer part of the beach. Looking over the horizon, he could just make out the figures of the candidates in the distance, though they were quickly closing the distance. "So what am I supposed to do? Run? Hide?"

"Oh yeah, Terrador said all you were supposed to do was not get caught until sundown." Sparx looked uninterested as he relayed the information. "And you can only use your abilities twice, and only for a minute at a time. Oh, he says to make sure not to get caught if you do."

"Well that puts a little bit of fun into the situation…" Zach chuckled to himself and shook his head. "Not like it would be much of a challenge for them otherwise."

"You'd better get going" Cynder prodded him with a grin on her face

"You!" Zach turned and looked at Cynder. "You were in on this!"

An evil grin was plastered across Cynder's face. "Well, actually we all knew about it… but yes, yes I was."

Zach let out an aggravated sigh. "I suppose I can't blame you, but you guys better watch your backs… I won't let this go too easily…"

"Ha! I would love to see you try." Cynder laughed as Zach stared her down

Zach only smiled playfully in response before extending his wings to take flight. "I guess we'll see what happens then."

Without another word, Zach launched himself into the sky, dust and dirt swirling around him from the draft of his wings.

Cynder watched as Zach banked into a thicker part of the woods before dropping down below the tree line.

Sparx turned towards Cynder, "so Cynder… what have you been doing out here all day with Spyro… huh? Anything interesting?"

"Shut up Sparx!"

Zach hastily dropped from the sky into the cover of the forest below him. He would have to voice his displeasure to the guardians about unwillingly being placed into a game of cat and mouse later. For now, he had to keep away from the group of rapidly approaching candidates. The last time he checked over his shoulder, they were only a few hundred yards behind him, a distance easily covered in under a minute. He would have tried to get somewhere other than the forest, but the candidates could have easily outrun him in the air. All he had to do was wait until he could lose them and then move to a different part of the countryside. There was a huge area from here to the temple that he could hide until sundown.

Looking at his surrounding, Zach tired to figure out his best coarse of action. He couldn't run from the candidates all day. He was already tired from the constant trials. He couldn't keep his powers sustained all day either. The guardians had tested his endurance one day, and he found he could hold it constant for a little less than an hour, but the exertion made him pass out. He would actually have to outrun and outsmart the candidates if he wanted to make it though the test, and he wanted nothing more than to show them all up. When the sun went down today, he would still be the one with the ribbon around his neck.

Soft mud covered the ground due to a recent rain, letting his claws sink into the ground and leaving easily distinguishable tracks. He would have to stay off the ground as much as possible

Beating his wings again, Zach lifted off the ground and set himself in a tree a few yards away. He easily fit on the large branch of the tree, but in order to hide himself better, Zach climbed up higher into the foliage. Lying down on a sturdy branch, Zach pulled his wings against his sides and wrapped his tail along the trunk. He could see the spot where he landed a few yards away and kept an eye one it, figuring the candidates wouldn't be too far behind.

Sure enough, five figures soon dropped below the tree line and landing in the clearing just where he had. He could just hear their voices through the trees.

"I told you he went this way. See, there are his footprints."

"Fine, you were right…"

"Hey, if it's going to be this easy to follow him, we'll be back at the temple with that ribbon in no time."

"Yeah, looks like he wasn't smart enough to cover his tracks."

Zach growled slightly but otherwise remained silent. They were going to have a harder time than that if they wanted to catch him

"I don't think so, look. The tacks end over here, he must have noticed and taken off again."

"We'll he couldn't have made it out of the forest. We would have seen him leave, and Felix would have seen him if he left after we landed. He can see the whole forest from where he's at."

"Alright, so that means he's flown somewhere in the forest, what do we do now?"

"I don't know, I guess we just split up and look for him."

"Anyone catch his scent?"

"No, I've got nothing."

"Me either"

"Well I guess we're doing this the hard way then. Keep your eyes open, and look for something white. It shouldn't be that hard in all this green and brown."

Slowly, the remaining guardians spread out from their location and walked off into the woods. Watching closely, Zach saw Crispen walk in his general direction. Zach moved his feet back underneath him in preparation to run, just incase Crispen looked up in his direction. Much to his relief, Crispen moved off in a different direction long before he passed beneath the tree Zach was hiding in.

Zach let his limbs relax as the candidate spread out farther from his position. He was surprised that no one had seen him up in the tree as it didn't provide that much cover, and as one of the candidates had said earlier, it wouldn't be that hard to spot his white scales in the dark colors of the forest.

The thought of running crossed his mind, but with all the noise he would make dropping down form the tree and the sparse undergrowth in the forest he wouldn't be out of the tree before someone noticed him.

Zach let out a heavy sigh; it looked like he would be stuck in the tree for a while.

Almost thirty minutes passed before Zach caught site of one of the candidates again. He could see Comet walking back into the clearing where he landed. Shortly after, the remaining candidates on the ground filtered back in to join him, none of them seemed happy

"I can't believe that no one found any sign of him. Its not like he can just disappear."

"He has to be in these woods somewhere. Felix said he didn't see him leave the area, and there isn't anywhere else to hide for a good distance from this spot so he couldn't have left without him seeing."

"Have you guys been looking in the trees? He's smarter than looks you know."

Zach heard a few grumbles and some no's come form the candidates, but his mind was working on how he could get away. If they finally started looking in the trees, they would see him for sure. It was time to use one of his get out of jail free cards, if he didn't Felix would see him as soon as he broke the forest canopy. It would make it easier to get out of the tree without getting spotted as well. Anyone looking in his direction would simply blame the movement on the wind.

Letting a small amount of energy flow through his body, Zach felt his active power take hold, effectively removing him from the world.

Standing up on the branch again, Zach spread his wings and aimed towards an opening in the canopy. Bursting out of the tree line in a flurry of wings, he immediately turned and headed back towards the temple. He couldn't get back to the temple in the short time he could remain unseen, but he could at least try to make it to a different section of the countryside. With any luck, he could loose the candidates and take his time walking back to the temple.

Flying as fast as he could, Zach made a beeline for the next set of trees in the distance. The guardians really knew whet they were doing when they sent him all the way out here. Looking over his shoulder, he could see that the forest bordering the lake was the only place to hide in the surrounding plains behind him. It was his only place to hide within a five minutes flight. According to what Sparx had told him, he would have to make himself visible long before he reached ant other place to hide, and if the candidates were paying attention, he would be an easy target.

Zach changed his course and pushed himself harder, aiming for a largely forested area in the distance. Open plains too boarded it on all sides, but it was at least four times larger than where he last hid. The candidates would to leave at leas two dragons to watch the forest from the air if they wanted to make sure he didn't leave, and that would leave only three or four dragons to look for him. He could easily hide from them until the sun went down.

The seconds slowly ticked by as Zach wings pushed him through the air, wind whipping against his face as he counted the passing seconds in his head. He understood why the guardians limited him, he could hide from the candidates indefinitely otherwise, but he was getting tired of doing things the hard way. Reluctantly, Zach released his control on his power, becoming visible to the world once again.

A few moments later, Zach heard a loud roar behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he could see Felix on a mad dash towards him, five separate figures shooting out of the forest canopy seconds later. Any hope he had of making it to the tree line unnoticed vanished as the figures sped towards him.

"Why can't I ever get a break." Zach groaned as he dropped down into the center of the collection of trees beneath him.

"How did you not see him leave?" Flint shouted angrily as he dropped down into the forest canopy. He and Chara were the first to react to Felix's call

"Hey, I signaled as soon as I saw him." Felix shot back as the other candidates landed behind Flint and Chara. He was the first one to make it to the area where Zach disappeared.

"Yeah, as soon as he was half way here. We're lucky we saw him at all." Crispen shot back as he landed behind Flint, as disgruntled as everyone else at the moment. They had already spent too long looking for Zach.

Felix growled in response "Well at least I saw him. I can't believe you guys didn't find him. You were down there long enough."

"Hey! That's enough, We don't we time for this. There are six of us against on of him, so shut up, spread out and find him. I don't want to be the ones telling the guardians that we couldn't find one dragon after hours of searching.

"Ohhh… Chara's getting a little bit feisty. Look out guys or she'll come after you…" Flint scoffed over his shoulder at Chara.

"Shut it Flint. Why don't you make yourself useful and go look for Zach. We don't have much time left before the sun sets."

"Yeah, like I'm going to listen to you. You guys haven't done anything all day. I'm just going to go find him myself."

"Come on Flint, you're never going to find him by yourself."

"I'll do better than you ever did Ashe; see you all back at the temple, I'll be the one with the ribbon." The other candidates watched as Flint strode off into the forest.

"Great, just great. But I guess we can't do anything about him. Are Comet and Ashe still up in the air?"

"Yeah, they're both watching to make sure Zach doesn't leave. The two of them should catch him if he does." Crispen glared over at Felix as he finished

Chara continued before Felix could say anything else. "Alright then, I guess we're just going to have to split up again, just don't go the direction Flint did. Whether he thinks he's working by himself or not, we all will get the same results from this."

"Alright then, signal if you need anything." Crispen nodded before walking off into the forest. Felix nodded as well and went off in a different direction, both dragons' eyes peeled and noses in the air.

Chara waited a moment before leaving, scanning the ground for any trace of Zach. Unfortunately for her, not even a scraped branch marked the area around where Zach had landed. Either he was very good, or very lucky.

Letting out an aggravated sigh, Chara moved off into the woods. The hours were slowly ticking away, and they had a large forest to search through.

"It's been hours, and no one has found Zach yet." Chara angrily muttered to herself as she searched her section of the forest for the fifth time. "This forest isn't that big."

Chara entered a now familiar clearing in the forest and sat on her haunches, clearing her mind to focus on the task at hand. The sun stood threateningly close to the horizon, making Chara wonder just how long they had to find Zach.

Lifting her nose in the air, Chara searched for any trace of Zach's scent. The water from the lake and the wet environment had helped mask his scent earlier in the day, but now that it was dry, they had a chance of picking him up.

Maybe… just maybe.

The air carried a heavy damp scent because of all the surrounding greenery, but amongst all the grass and dirt, she could detect a faint masculine scent. And unlike the heavy musk of the other candidates she had been forced to put up with during the week, she actually enjoyed this one.

"Gotcha!"

Turning towards the source of the smell, Chara began stalking through the underbrush. With any luck, she could sneak up without Zach realizing she was there.

Using only her nose to guide her, Chara crawled along the ground, slinking silently through the bushes in front of her. Zach's scent strengthened as she moved foreword, and after minutes of stalking, she could her faint breathing coming through the bushes.

Stooping her movement, Chara pressed herself to the ground and peered through the bushes. Faint white specks showed through the gaps in the leaves, and Chara could clearly make out Zach's outline.

She could signal the other guardians and chase Zach down in tangent with them, but if she did, she would lose the element of surprise, and there was not guarantee that she would be able to chase him down afterward. Raising her body slightly off the ground, Chara flexed her muscles and planed her attack. It wouldn't be long now.

Chara pounced onto the white dragon, knocking him across the ground as she reach out to grab the ribbon tied around his neck. She could feel Zach pushing against her as she scrambled to grab the ribbon, and when she loosened her grip to grab for the ribbon again, Zach kicked her off over his head, leaving her empty handed

Aggravated, Chara scrambled back to her feet only to see Zach darting away through the trees. Digging her talons into the ground, she tore after him

Zach led her on a twisting path in between the trees, darting around large tress and rocks in an attempt to shake her of his tail. Unfortunately for him, not only was she faster than he was, but more agile as well. Each twist and turn did nothing to shake her off his tail, and as the seconds passed, the game between them shortened.

Up ahead of her, Zach continued to glance over his shoulder occasionally, checking her position as he led her through the forest. She could see the uncertainty in his eyes grow as she drew closer.

Suddenly, Zach took a sharp turn around some large rocks into a gully that ran across the forest floor. Taking the initiative, Chara pounced over the rocks in an attempt to close the gap.

Landing in the water at the bottom of the gully, Chara glanced down the stream expecting to see Zach feet in front of her. To her shock, she didn't see Zach at all. Whipping her head around to look behind her, Chara still couldn't find any trace of her query.

"What?" Chara turned to look back down the length of the gully, only to feel someone tackle her from behind.

Chara tumbled through the water scratching and clawing only to feel the person who had tackled her pin her to the ground. Blinking to clear her vision, Chara looked up to see just who had tackled her.

Zach stood above her, his forepaws pinning hers to the ground and his stomach pressed against hers while he used his weight and hind feet to keep her from kicking him off. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't get out from underneath him.

"Sorry about that, I hadn't expected you to jump in front of me" Zach spoke through pants as he stood overtop of her; the orange ribbon dangled just inches from her face.

"Yeah, well, do you mind getting off me?" Chara was panting as well from chasing Zach through the woods. Her eyes followed the slight swaying of the ribbon around Zach's neck. It was just out of range of her teeth.

"Only if you don't follow me." Zach glanced around the forest once before looking back at Chara.

"Sorry but I can't take that deal." Chara glowered back up at Zach.

Zach only smiled as he answered. "I don't think you're really in any position to be negotiating."

Chara struggled to free herself again only to let her head splash back into the water underneath her, blood rushing to her cheeks.

"I'll give you credit, you were the only one to come remotely close to me today, but the sun will be long past the horizon before the ribbon around my neck makes it back to the temple.

"Wanna bet?" Chara smirked back up into Zach's face, obviously challenging him.

"Yeah, I do." Zach smirked back before quickly leaping over Chara's head, surprising her. Two steps later, Zach opened his wings and shot up into the tree canopy.

Flustered, Chara rolled to her feet, taking a moment to collect herself before launching herself up into the forest canopy in pursuit of Zach.

Bursting out of the trees in a flurry of leaves, Chara looked for Zach above the treetops. She could see Felix and Ashe flying in circles well above the treetops, but she could not find any trace of Zach.

Seeing a dragon break through the tree line, Ashe flew down to investigate before alighting himself beside Chara.

"Hey, what's up?"

Chara spoke quickly, still attempting to find a trace of Zach above the trees. "You didn't see Zach? He just jumped through the trees a second ago."

Ashe looked around quickly before turning back to Chara. "Felix and I didn't see anything, are you sure you saw him come up here?"

"I'm positive I saw him. I almost had him before…" Chara angrily trailed off. "Maybe he's still on the ground."

Ashe watched as Chara dropped back into the forest below. Figuring she may need some help, Ashe caught Felix's attention before following her down to the ground below.

After clearing the tangle of leaves and branches, Ashe landed to see Chara sitting on the ground frustrated.

"Are you sure you saw him?" Ashe looked around the forest before moving over and sitting next to Chara.

"Ashe, I tackled him once and almost grabbed the ribbon twice, I'm pretty sure I saw him." Chara shot back with an obviously aggravated tone.

"Well then he still has to be around here somewhere, lets call the others and see if we can find him."

"Ashe, the sun's almost set, I can't track his scent anymore, and we've only seen him twice the whole day. We don't stand a chance in finding him." Chara wearily stood to her feet. "We might as well just go back to the temple."

Ashe looked at Chara. There was a large amount of truth behind her words. "Why don't we keep looking until the sun goes down, that way we stick it through until the end. Besides, like you said, it won't be much longer until the sun goes down."

"Alright, I supposed you're right. Come on, I think he went this way."

Zach watched proudly as the last traces of light disappeared from the night sky. The sun had disappeared over the horizon a while ago, but he had waited in hiding longer just to be sure the candidates would be back at the temple. He wasn't entirely sure how he had pulled it off, but he had managed to evade the candidates for the past few hours. Sure he had used his powers twice and his last escape was a bit of a cruel joke, but he had stayed within Terrador's ridiculous rules and designations, and at the end of it all, the orange ribbon still remained tied around his neck. `

It was time for him to go back to the temple.

Stepping into a clearing, Zach took of towards the temple, eagerly anticipating food and rest after the day's challenge. Sometimes it felt like the guardians were testing him more than they were testing the candidates. Either way it really didn't matter, hopefully he would be out of this place in the next few days.

Within a few minutes, Zach could see moonlight reflecting off the stone of the temple. Spreading his wings, Zach floated down and landed gracefully on the temple platform.

"Congratulations" Zach jumped as Cynder's voice floated through the air. Turing to his side, Zach saw her walk out of the shadows and into the moonlight. "I have to say I wasn't sure if you would be ale to do it, but I guess you showed us all."

"Yeah I guess, but I have to say I feel kind of sorry for the candidates. I had a few unfair advantages."

Cynder smiled, "I suppose, but it was six against one."

"True," Zach started to walk into the temple with Cynder following behind. "Did you need something or were you just waiting to scare me into a coma?"

"The guardians wanted to see you in the training room when you came back, so I was told to wait for you."

Zach let out a heavy sigh, "I suppose we should go see them then."

Zach walked alongside Cynder as the wound their way through the temple. As they walked, Zach began to feel the aches and pains from hiding in the woods. It wasn't anything serious, but he would be sore for a while.

Zach walked into the training room to see Cyril and Volteer addressing the candidates in the center of the room. Spyro sat near the door and was listening to the conversation. Zach and Cynder walked up and sat down beside Spyro, one on either side.

"Good job Zach" Spyro motioned towards the ribbon still tied around Zach's neck.

Zach nodded in response, "I suppose I can take this off now can't I?" Running one of his sharp talons underneath the necklace, Zach severed the string and let it fall to the ground. "That thing was starting to drive me crazy."

Cynder looked over at Spyro, motioning towards the candidates with one of her wings. "So what have they been talking about?"

"Mostly just what happened today. Why it didn't work, things like that."

"Sounds like they're having a lot of fun."

'They've been arguing amongst themselves more than they've talked to the guardians. Cyril just stopped them from yelling at each other."

Zach turned to look at the candidates. "It looks like Cyril is dismissing them now."

With a wave of Cyril's wing, the candidates all stood and turned toward the door. Each candidate gave Zach an aggravated look as they passed, but Chara stopped in front of Zach.

"I still don't get it. How did you get away so easily? It's like you just disappeared."

Zach shared a grin with Spyro and Cynder. "I don't know what you mean. I guess I just got lucky"

Chara squinted at Zach. "I almost had you pinned."

"If I remember correctly, I had you pinned."

Spyro and Cynder looked at Zach with slightly shocked expressions while Chara huffed and walked away.

"You did what?" Cynder gave Zach another incredulous look as soon as Chara was out of earshot.

"She jumped in front of me while I was running, it's not my fault I ran over her"

"Sure…"

Zach let out an irritated grunt. "Whatever…" looking around, Zach noticed that he, Spyro and Cynder were the only ones left in the training room. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to get something to eat. I haven't eaten all day thanks to that challenge."

"That sounds good to me." Spyro spoke up as he began to walk down the hallway. Cynder and Zach soon followed him. "You'll have to tell us what happened to you while we had a nice day out at the lake."

Zach growled again. "I will find a way to get you back for that."

"Keep dreaming Zach." Cynder smirked back at Zach as she walked into the mess hall

"Just you wait…" Zach muttered again, through only to himself. Walking into the large room, Zach followed Zach and Cynder to a table already holding Chara, Flint, and Comet, grabbing some food along the way. Sitting down, he tried to pick up on their conversation.

"I swear I heard something in the woods, but when I went to check it out, nothing was there." Comet spoke through a mouthful of food, waving his hands through the air.

"Make all the excuses you want Comet, we all know you were no closer to tracking Zach in the woods than we were." Flint shook his head, scoffing at Comet."

Chara spoke with a sly grin, "That's not entirely true Flint. I almost caught Zach near the end."

"Yeah almost. Too bad that doesn't mean anything."

"It's better than anything you did."

"Maybe, but if it had been me that had found Zach, he wouldn't have been the one with the ribbon at the end of the day." A low growl resonated in Flint's throat as he spoke, his frustration showing on his body.

"Are trying to say something flint?" Chara narrowed her eyes at Flint. Zach stopped eating his food and watched as Chara and Flint glared at each other from across the table.

"You couldn't grab the ribbon from around Zach's neck, even when you had the jump on him."

"Hey at least I found him, that's better than anything you developed." Chara shot back, scowling in Flint's face as she spoke.

"Ha! That was dumb luck, when it comes to any actual challenge, you don't stand a chance." Flint scowled back, shoving his face up against hers. "You never had a chance from the start. All you're doing is keeping the rest of us back, why don't you go back home to your mother."

Chara came back with another irritated growl. "Shut up Flint, you're just scared because I'm doing better than you. Why don't you just keep your opinions to yourself."

"I don't know. I have to say it's really odd to have a female candidate here." Comet joined in on the conversation much to everyone's displeasure. "It just doesn't feel right, and I'm not convinced you can keep up with the rest of us."

Chara recoiled before turning her frustration to Comet. "Keep up with you? Comet, I kicked your ass in training yesterday. If there's anyone struggling to keep up its you."

"That's only because the guardians are taking it easy one you."

"What? You both know that's not true."

"Just admit it, you know you can't keep up with the rest of us. A female could never become guardian." Flint didn't care to hide the sneer in his voice.

"Excuse me?" Cynder stood up and pushed her way into the conversation, shoving Flint back away from Chara.

Spyro and Zach shared a worried glance; there was no way out of this now.

"You want to say that again Flint?" Cynder glared at Flint from beside Chara.

Flint growled in response, "oh, so now you're getting into this? Its not like it will change anything. Spyro beat you with the odds stacked against him, I don't think you stand much of a chance now." Flint was smiling directly at Cynder by the end of his sentence.

Cynder only smiled back in response; "well then, if you're so confident, I don't suppose you will have any trouble proving it."

Flint faltered for a moment before taking a step closer to Cynder "that sounded like a challenge."

Cynder pressed towards Flint again, raising her head above his and staring down at his through narrowed eyes. "You better believe it.

"Enough!" Terrador's booming voice startled everyone and forced Cynder and Flint to back away from each other. "There is no need for this petty squabble." Terrador stared hard at Flint, Cynder and Chara before letting out an irritated sigh. "Whom am I kidding, you're never going to let this go. If you must keep fighting like this, at least do it in the arena."

"Oh I'm up for it. What do you say flint, do you want me to kick your ass now or later?" Cynder shot a confident glare over at Flint.

"Don't think you're leaving me out of this now. He started this with me and I'm going to be the one to show him up." Chara moved up alongside Cynder

Flint shot back just as confidently. "Alright, you're both on! Right now!"

Terrador shook his head. Oh to have the eagerness of youth. "Alright, I will permit it, but you will allow me to designate the rules, and you will cease quarreling on the subject once this is over. Comet, because we cannot have an unfair fight, you will join Flint in the arena."

"But…"

"But nothing. Am I understood?" Terador waited until all four of the younger dragons reluctantly nodded their heads. "Good. The four of you need to report to the training room then." Terador nodded to dismiss the dragons before turning and walking out of the room.

Zach and Spyro both watched worriedly as the four quarreling dragons walked out of the room, Chara, Cynder, and Flint all shooting glares at their opponents. Neither group said anything as the walked, and they soon split ways to enter different parts of the arena.

"I almost feel sorry for Comet. I don't think he has any idea what he got himself into." Zach shook his head as the blue white dragon turned around the corner.

Spyro only laughed beside him, "I don't think he does either, but he will figure it out the hard way, though I don't think he will be the target of the girls' anger."

Spyro and Zach waited a while before following the group out the door. Spyro half laughed as the walked down the hall. "This is one thing I'm not going to miss."

"What's going on?" Zach and Spyro looked over their shoulders to see Ashe walking up behind them.

Zach motioned with one of his wings, "come on, you're not going to want to miss this either, and it will be quick to explain on the way."

Chara and Cynder stood beside each other directly across the arena from Flint and Comet. Each dragon stood with snarls on their faces and muscles tensed for combat. Spyro, Zach, Ashe, and the guardians all stood in a cluster at the edge of the arena, curious as to the outcome of the match. Zach and Spyro thought they had a pretty good idea of who the victory would be, but with the skills of the candidates, it was hard to tell.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Terrador? What if one of them gets hurt?" Cyril asked of the earth Guardian.

"It is quite possible that one of them may severely injure another, but at least this way we can monitor the outcome and prevent any excess injury." Terrador spoke as he continued to watch the dragons out in the arena.

"Wait, so you're saying you expect them to hurt each other?" Spyro looked up at Terrador.

"Hopefully they wont, but with they way they were acting, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them overdoes it. Relax though, they should be fine."

"I still don't think this is a good idea" Cyril Mumbled

"They would have fought each other over this eventually. This just make the battle slightly safer." Terrador turned his head as he finished speaking, nodding to Cyril. "Besides, we always have a plan B."

Cyril let out a resigned sigh. "I you say so Terrador." Looking out at the ring, Cyril nodded towards the dragons. "I would let them start before they get too anxious."

Terrador turned back to the dragons in the arena, raising his voice so everyone in the room could hear him. "Alright, here are the conditions for this match. A combatant will be eliminated when he or she is rendered immobile or submits to their opponent. You may fight in any manner you wish, though you must control yourself to prevent serious bodily harm to your opponent. If we feel this gets out of hand, we will cease the match , and you will not finish the match. You will also cease your bickering over this matter regardless of the victor. Am I clear?"

Each dragon in the center of the arena nodded, though their attention stayed riveted on each other.

"I see you are all anxious to start. Very well, you may begin.

The dragons on the field didn't need to be told twice.

Snarling, Flint sprinted to close the distance between the two groups. After a moment of hesitation, Comet followed close behind him.

Having their own intentions, Cynder and Chara split away from each other. Both halting away from each other in different halves of the arena, they waited for their opponents to decide.

Flint immediately broke after Chara while Comet hesitated a moment before moving to take on Cynder.

"You don't want to do this Comet." Cynder showed her teeth as she circled around Comet. Looking across the arena, she could see Flint and Chara had settled into a similar match-up. "You can still walk away."

"You know I can't do that." Comet called back as they completed another circle. His voice did not sound as confident as he intended. "I can take you, and I can't leave Flint out here by himself."

Cynder almost smiled. "Well, I agree with you on the last one, but its not going to matter."

Cynder pounced on her opponent, catching him off guard and tackling him to the ground. Rolling to her feet, Cynder waited for Comet to struggle back to his feet "this is your last chance, Comet. I'm not going to give you another one."

Comet only growled and leapt toward Cynder.

Cynder easily steeped out of the way of Comet's reckless lunge, watching as Comet slid to a stop behind her. "I'll take that as another no"

Comet responded by shooting a small fireball at Cynder . Moving out of the way, Cynder ran to close the small distance between them again. She would do this without using any of her powers if she could.

In response, Comet spewed a thin stream of fire towards the dragoness, forcing her to jump out of the way again. Tuning as she landed, she could see Comet barreling after her.

Cynder lashed out with her tail as Comet passed her, tripping him and sending him crashing to the ground. As an irritated Comet struggled to his feet again, Cynder spread her wings and took flight.

Comet shot a few weak fireballs after the black dragoness, but she easily evaded them in the air. Realizing his situation, Comet spread his large wings and took to the air. He would have to fight on her terms.

Comet sped up at Cynder while she dove down towards him, their incredible speeds closing the gap in fractions of a second. Zach flinched as he watched both dragons pass each other in the air, both passing the other and banking around for another pass. Once again they raced towards each other at breakneck speeds, but before they collided, Cynder dove sharply below Comet.

As Comet passed over her, she pulled into an incredibly sharp loop, placing herself slightly above and behind Comet. Comet looked across the arena to where he expected Cynder to end up, but upon not seeing her, hesitated. Taking advantage of his hesitation, Cynder collapsed her wings and dove on the dragon below her, tackling him to the sandy ground below.

Cynder landed on top of Comet with a muffled thump, their momentum sending them across the arena a few yards before rolling to a stop.

Cynder stood atop Comet, one foot on his neck as she stood growling in his face. "Give up yet?"

Comet squirmed under Cynder's hold, but it was no use. Snorting, Comet laid his head on the ground and looked away from Cynder.

"I'll take that as a yes." Cynder gingerly stepped off of Comet and allowed him to his feet.

Comet did not look at her as he rose, instead keeping his head down as he walked over to the group of dragons standing along the edge of the arena.

Turning with a smile of satisfaction, Cynder looked over to Chara and Flint. Short streams of fire shot across the arena as the two combatants fought each other in the air. The arena was large enough to give Chara and Flint enough distance for Cynder and Comet not to intermix their fights, but now that Comet was gone, it was two against one.

Taking to the air, Cynder quickly made her way behind Flint as he hovered in the air. Both of the dueling dragons were so focused on each other that they didn't notice Cynder as she positioned herself above them.

After another aerial exchange of flaming streaks, both Chara and Flint hovered in the air. Hostile glare covered the distance between them, each daring the other to make the first move as they took a moments respite from their battle.

Sensing her chance, Cynder folder her wings against her body and dove down onto flint, pulling him out of the sky with her talons as she streaked toward the ground. Throwing out her wings, Cynder angled herself and her cargo parallel to the ground before slamming Flint on his back into the sand beneath her.

Grit showered Cynder's body as the sand absorbed the momentum of her forward flight, Flint carving a divot in the ground.

After the initial surprise of watching Flint get tackled out of the air, Chara dropped down to the ground near the stricken Flint.

Chara growled at Cynder. "Let him up."

Cynder looked up from Flint to give Chara a quizzical stare. "What?"

"I said let him up. I'm not going to give him any way out of this. I will beat him fair and square. No outside help. It will be so much sweeter that way." Chara still stood in a ready position as Flint squirmed underneath Cynder's grip. "Now let him up."

Cynder waited a moment, gazing over at Chara and trying to determine the other dragoness' thoughts. Slowly, she loosened her grip on Flint and stepped to the side. "Alright, I'll stay out of this. For now anyway."

Flint scoffed as he stood to his feet, shooting Cynder an irritated look before turning to face Chara again. "I'll give you credit Chara. You're not as big of a whelp as I thought you were, but its not going to matter in the end. All you did was make it easier to take both of you down by myself."

Cynder raised her lip and tensed off to the side, but otherwise didn't make any movements toward Flint. Chara let out a low growl, fire flickering between her exposed teeth. "I'm going to make you eat those words."

Flint came back with his usual sly grin. "I'd like to see you try."

Chara roared in anger, releasing an excessively large fireball from her maw.

Flint stood in shock for a moment before diving out of the way of Chara's roaring fireball. Each dragon in the arena flinched as the heat wave from the fireball washed through over them.

"Want to play rough huh?" Flint wiped a bit of ash off the side of his face. "I suppose I can afford to go all out."

"Oh, bring it." Chara launched another streaming ball of flame only to have Flint counter with one of his own. Both balls collided before combusting a sphere of hot energy, forcing Cynder to take a step back from the center of the arena.

Chara charged through the fading explosion, surpassing Flint as she rushed through the smoke.

Jumping into the air, Flint flew just above Chara's charge as she rushed underneath him. Following her momentum, Chara spread her wings and jumped into the air, circling up behind Flint.

Flint turned and lunged at Chara, raking his claws against her side as she turned to pass by him. Snarling, Chara retaliated with a long jet of fire that streamed after the rustic dragon.

"Maybe I was wrong Chara," Flint sneered from a safe distance. "If that's all you've got, you don't even deserve to call yourself a dragon.

"At least I'm stronger than a youngling. You didn't even leave a scratch."

Flint growled before barreling down at Chara. Chara back-winged out of the way, but Flint shot a shot stream of fire beneath her, the updraft from the heat forcing her back into Flint's flight path. Flint hit her shoulder first, his hard bone driving into her gut and knocking her out of the air.

Chara hit the ground hard but quickly stood to her feet. Zach could hear her gasping for air from his position across the arena as she struggled to her feet.

Flint landed a few feet from Chara, a smug grin on his face as he walked up to his opponent. "What's wrong Chara? Can't deal with the pain? Don't worry, you can go back home once we're done here."

Flint lunged foreword to push Chara to the ground only to watch her crimson form slip out from under him. Turning his head, Flint saw Chara roll to her feet before she lashed out with her tail, tripping him up and sending him down to the ground.

"Get up Flint. If you think that little hit is going to stop me, you've got another thing coming." Chara's words came through ragged breaths, but she stood firm as she faced Flint.

"Fine," Flint stood roughly to his feet. "No more talk then." Breathing a torrent of fire, Flint forced Chara to roll out of the way.

Chara countered with a small fireball that slashed to the ground feet in font of flint, showing the dragon with dirt and grime. Seeing her chance, Chara pounced onto Flint.

Chara landed on Flint with a sickening thud, causing the male dragon to crumble underneath her. Flint let out an agonized roar as his legs bucked beneath him, Chara's weight forcing him to the ground.

Chara moved her jaw inches from Flint's neck as she held him to the ground. A low growl escaped her throat. "Twice in a row flint? I don't think that's luck. Face it, you lost this one."

Toreador's booming voice interrupted her thoughts. "Alright, that's enough Chara. I think this fight is over."

Chara snorted as she pushed off Flint, causing the dragon to let out another agonized howl.

Flint rolled onto his back, cradling one of his arms as Chara walked away from him. Cyril and Zach were quick to move out to the stricken dragon.

"My my, that can't be good." Cyril held Flint down to keep him from aggravating his arm more. "Come now, lets get you to the infirmary." Picking the writhing dragon up, Cyril walked off into the temple, leaving Zach standing by himself in the center of the arena.

Spyro had walked out to meet Cynder in the center of the arena, while Ashe had gone out to meet Chara. The rest of the guardians stayed with Comet on the side of the arena.

"It's about time someone put him in his place." Ashe laughed as he walked up alongside Chara.

Chara coughed a few times before answering. "Yeah… Well, I'm just glad I was the one who got to knock some sense into him." Chara attempted a few steps foreword, but stopped as he legs shook underneath her.

"Hey are you ok?" Ashe pushed up alongside Chara as she stumbled.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a little rest." Chara pushed herself off Ashe before struggling to the side of the arena. Ashe only shrugged and followed after her.

Zach walked over to Spyro and Cynder to join in their conversation. "Its nice to not be the one covered in grime for once."

Cynder only glared at Zach.

"Yeah, but she was the one who won the fight." Spyro laughed as Zach joined them.

"Part of it anyway. Chara did quite well against Flint, although I wasn't sure she would be able to pull it off for a moment." Cynder looked over at the crimson dragon along the wall. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go clean up." Cynder nodded to both Spyro and Zach before she walked off into another part of the temple.

Terrador quickly walked up to Zach as Cynder left. "Zach, I believe you are needed in the infirmary. Makias needs your help with Flint's arm."

"Makais is a lot better at taking care of injures than I am, are you sure he can't handle it."

Terrador only shook his head. "Not like that Zach. Flint's arm is broken, and we need him able to participate in some of the trails tomorrow."

Zach looked quizzically at Terrrador. "So you mean…?"

"Yes. I will explain it to them later, just go take care of Flint now."

Zach nodded before grumbling to himself as he walked down the hall. "This may be interesting."

Zach walked into the room to see Makais tending to Flint's injured arm. Even from across the room, Zach could already tell it was broken. Flint grimaced as Makias wrapped bandages tightly around his arm before freezing them in place with a thin layer of ice.

Makias looked up from his work to see Zach enter the room. "Oh Zach, I know the guardians sent for you, but I can handle it from here, I'm almost done anyway."

Zach gave Makais a weak smile and walked closer to Flint. "Not to doubt your abilities Makias, but there is something I can do that you cant."

"What do you mean?" Makias gave Zach a skeptical glance.

"Well… it would be easier to just show you." Zach pointed towards the thin wrap around Flint's arm. "You're going to have to break that."

Makias continued to look skeptically at Flint. "I just set his arm back into place, I don't want you messing it up again."

"Just trust me on this one, besides, the guardians were the ones that told me to do this."

"Alright" Makias broke the thin layer of ice around Flint's arms and gingerly removed the bandages. "Now what?"

"You can stand back now." Zach nodded to Makias before he turned to flint. "I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt… a lot…"

Flint recoiled away from Zach. "Well then maybe I don't want you to help me. Makias was done with his work and it wasn't causing any more pain."

"Trust me, you're going to want it done this way." Before Flint could react again, Zach reached out and grabbed onto Flints injured arm.

Flint shut his eyes and let out a pained grunt as Zach latched onto his arm; both from the contact and Zach's powers fusing his bone together.

Zach watched with a mild sense of amusement as Makias reacted to Zach's now active power. He could feel the energy drain from his body, but it was only a slight amount of his total energy. Zach smiled with satisfaction as the blue green sparks stopped racing from his arm into Flint. It had taken him less time and energy than expected, probably due to the fact that Makias had previously reset the bone.

Finished, Zach removed his hand from Flint's arm and sat down on the floor, amusing himself with the looks of shock on Makias and Flint's faces.

"What did you just do?" Flint gave Zach an incredulous stare as Makias moved in and rechecked Flint's arm. Moments later, Makias looked up in shock as well.

"I don't believe it, it's gone. Its like his bone was never broken in the first place. No one can heal that fast…" Makias trailed off, obviously making sense of memories in his mind. "That's how you did it. That's why you three healed so fast. I don't think I would have believe this if I hadn't seen it." Makias looked down at Flint's arm before looking back up at Zach. "Do you know what you could do with this?"

"Yes, we do. And that is why you must never speak of it once you leave this room. Terrador's low voice interrupted the tree as he entered the room

Makias interjected. "But Terrador, you don't know how many lives…"

"I am well aware of what Zach could do, but I am also away of what would happen if word got out about Zach's abilities."

"I don't think you realize how much energy that takes Makias." Zach broke into the conversation again. "Just his broken arm took a severe amount of energy, and when my elemental energy is depleted, my body starts trading my physical energy to maintain the elemental flow. If I try and use too much energy…"

"It could kill you."

Zach nodded as Makias drew the intended conclusion.

"As I said, this conversation never leaves this room. Flint, do not expect Zach to help you if you are injured again. This was a one-time occurrence because of the circumstances." Terrador looked over at Flint.

"Not like I would want his help again anyway." Flint grumbled as he stood on his now injury free arm.

"You're welcome." Zach shook his head and turned to Terrador. "Do you need anything else or can I go now?"

"You are free to go Zach."

Zach nodded "thank you."

Walking out of the infirmary, Zach was shocked to see Chara waiting anxiously in the hallway.

"Chara? What are you doing here? Do you need help with something?" Zach looked over Chara's body. He had not seen her take many hits during the skirmish, and she seemed to have recovered from her blow to the chest.

Chara smiled and pushed Zach away from her a little bit. "No, it's not that. I came to see how Flint was doing. I feel bad that I knocked him out of the candidacy."

"What do you mean by that?"

Chara looked down at the ground. "He can't compete with a broken arm. The guardians might have to send him home."

"Uh…" Zach stuttered as he realized he would have to fight against what most everyone saw in the training room. "He's fine actually. Makias said it was more of a small sprain then anything else. The swelling went down quickly, and he should be up and around in not too long."

"What?" Chara gave Zach a skeptical glance. "I saw what I did to him, that was no simple sprain."

"Don't believe me now, huh?" Zach almost smiled, he seemed to have that effect on people. : he should be out in a minute if you want to see for yourself."

As if on cue, Flint limped out of the infirmary. Upon seeing Chara, he let out an aggravated grow, but otherwise said nothing before turning and walking down the hall.

"Believe me now?"

"I swore I hit him harder than that…"Chara stared as Flint walked down the hallway.

"Getting soft now are we?" Zach laughed until Chara punched him in the arm.

"Soft enough for you?"

"Ha Ha…." Zach rolled his eyes and waited for Chara to turn down the hall. Lifting an arm, he rubbed the sore spot on his arm before following Chara down the hallway.

Chara turned to Zach as he caught up with her. "So did you hear? The guardians said we were going to have a big assessment tomorrow."

"Really? Did they say what they're going to have you do?"

"No, they just said we were going to challenge us against others our age. I can only imagine that meant you, Spyro and Cynder."

Zach groaned. "Unfortunately, I think you may be right. I wouldn't put it past the guardians to try something like that. Though I still don't understand why they keep insisting on putting me through this things."

"What? You're worried? You've trained with the guardians longer than any of us have."

Zach laughed. "Yeah, by about two days. And even then, it was a crash course in 'how not to die while fighting apes, chasing down other dragons, and running for your life.'"

Chara laughed as they walled down the hall together. "So what brought you to the temple anyway? You don't seem to be here for training, and no offense, but you don't exactly have close relations with anyone here either."

Zach winced, "I suppose everyone gets around to asking me that questioned don't they…" Chara looked at Zach as he trailed off. "I can't say exactly, but I suppose it really a matter of necessity. I need help with something, and I can only get it from someone here."

"Spyro?"

Zach smiled. "I almost wish it wasn't, but yes."

"What about me?"

Chara and Zach turned around to see Spyro and Cynder walking up behind them.

"Well come on, I heard my name. I do believe I'm entitled to know what you're talking about." Spyro and Cynder stopped facing Zach and Chara, who had turned around.

"Oh come on you egotistical goof, not everything has to be about you." Cynder turned her head to smirk at Spyro.

"That's not what I meant" Spyro turned away and rubbed the back of his head as the other laughed.

Cynder quickly changed the subject. "Nice job out their Chara, you really gave it to Flint."

Chara smiled sheepishly at the comment. "Thanks, you were really good out there too. I don't think Comet knew what hit him."

"I think Comet still doesn't know what hit him." Zach chuckled with the rest of the group.

"Yeah. Hopefully by the end of this training, I'll be able to take out someone that fast." Chara nodded in Cynder's direction.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short. I think Flint was a lot more into than Comet, and you really hit him hard there at the end. He probably won't be walking on that leg for quite a while." Spyro finally spoke to the group again.

Chara shook her head. "Actually, I saw him walk out of the infirmary unhindered just a while ago. Zach said it was just a sprain."

Spyro and Cynder looked startled before turning their gazes onto Zach. "Just a sprain huh?"

Zach rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. Just a sprain."

"I guess he'll be up to fighting with us tomorrow then." A grin slowly spread across Spyro's muzzle.

Zach gave another low groan. "Why am I the last one to be told these things?"

"Maybe if you weren't off running in the woods all day, you would know these things." Cynder grinned as she looked across the group as Zach. Zach responded with a low growl.

"Not cool."

Cynder nodded to the group before separating herself from their circle. "Alright. I do think that's enough fun for one day. I'm going to go rest for a while, probably won't fall asleep just yet, but it will be nice and quiet there."

Spyro spoke up as Cynder turned to leave. "Do you want me to walk you to your room?" His hesitant voice barely made it across the hallway.

"I'm not hurt Spyro, you don't need to baby me." Cynder hesitated a second as Spyro's head fell, "but that would be nice. Thank you."

Cynder smiled as Spyro walked up alongside her, both of them walking abnormally close to each other as they strode down the hallway towards Cynder's room.

"Sometimes I wish I had what they do; even if they don't know it yet." Zach looked almost longingly at Spyro and Cynder as they passed walked out of sight.

"Oh come on Zach, I'm sure any dragoness would be happy to have you."

"I don't think I'm fit for any dragoness Chara, but that's a different subject…"

Chara looked at Zach a moment before speaking again. "Is it about what happened between you and Cynder?"

Zach immediately froze before turning a worried look back towards Chara.

"She didn't say what happened. She just told me something happened and that I would have to ask you about it."

Zach quickly changed from a worried glance to an irritated glare. "Why would you want to know?"

"I guess… I just wanted to know more about you."

"Why? I don't belong here." Zach turned around fully so he was facing Chara.

"Sure you do Zach. You're around friends here."

"That's not what I meant, but I guess I couldn't expect you to understand." Zach huffed and turned away from Chara, flicking his tail as he turned.

"Understand what? Zach, why are you acting like this? I may not have known you for long, but I know this isn't you."

Zach turned around again, his voice rising as he spoke. "You don't know me. No one here does. No one knows what I'm going through right now."

"Then why don't you tell someone?"

"Because I can't, ok." Zach shouted back and turned to leave the room, but Chara moved in front of him and blocked his way.

"Please Zach, I just want to help." Chara looked at Zach with concern in his eyes.

"Then help by getting out of my way!"

"Zach!" strength laced the concern in her voice, "please…"

"Why do you care so much?" Zach refrained from yelling, but his voice still carried an angry tone

Chara paused, obviously struggling with something. "Because I'm trying to be your friend Zach… and…"

"And what?"

Chara's voice dropped to a whisper barely audible to Zach, "…I don't know… I was hoping that maybe… maybe it could be something more."

Zach started as he realized what Chara had just said. Thoughts raced through his head faster than he could comprehend them. He had never expected anything like this to happen, never expected anyone, especially any female, to try and develop a close relationship with him. It was… different… unexpected.

His voice came back in a low growl. "Get that thought out of your head now." Zach snorted again, "Something like that will never happen between you and I." Zach turned angrily, whipping his tail through the air in front of Chara's face as he stormed off into a deeper part of the temple.

Chara watched silently as he disappeared around the corner.

O.o what's this… and you all thought this was going to turn out as a happy chapter, didn't you? Anyway, this is obviously more filler than anything… which is exactly how I planned it… 3 or 4 months ago…..

Yeah….

And for those of you who may have thought I was portraying the females as helpless….

Don't mess with Cynder… she will kick your ass…

Don't mess with Chara either… she will kick your ass too….

Any questions?

Poor Comet… he still doesn't know what he got himself into

I typed the last portion of this on the equivalent of a roller coaster, so it there are typos, which I'm sure there are, go ahead and point them out, but for now, LIVE WITH IT.

As usual, check my journal for more info on what going on with the story. I think its actually all good news this time! :)


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Questions

Spyro walked beside Cynder as they slowly moved back towards Cynder's room. He still felt a little embarrassment at asking to walk her back to her room, but it was easily overshadowed by the fact that he could spend a little more Cynder.

His mind had been screaming at him to finally get the words he wanted to say out of his mouth, but every time he would get close, his confidence would fail him.

Spyro laughed at the thought. Out of all the things he had done, talking to Cynder was the one place he lacked confidence.

As Spyro mused though his thoughts, Cynder's room came into view. Stopping outside, Cynder turned to Spyro before entering.

"I'm not going to sleep just yet. Would you like to come in for a while? It would be nice to have someone to talk to."

Spyro smiled in return. "Sure."

Pushing aside the door, Spyro allowed Cynder to walk into her room in front of him.

Cynder set herself down on her bed, stretching her legs out while spreading her wings behind her. Spyro followed her by laying down on the other set of bedding in Cynder's room.

"A little tiered from today?"

Cynder only laughed as she settled onto her bed. "I'm not so much tired as I am glad to sit down and rest. I'm starting to feel like Zach with all of what's been going on."

"That might not be a bad thing as long as you don't start acting like him." Spyro laughed as Cynder shot him a glare. "Hey, as much as I like time off, he shouldn't be the one doing everything."

"You're just saying that because you haven't had to do anything yet."

"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean what I said isn't true."

"I guess that means you're volunteering for the next assignment." Cynder smirked over at Spyro.

"Hey, I didn't say that." Spyro looked back over at Cynder as she continued to smirk at him.

"You're right though, Zach shouldn't be the one doing everything. And what better way to help him then by taking some of his work off his shoulders?"

Spyro huffed through his nostrils. "Have Zach battle across the country; fight a golem on multiple occasions, and save the world. Then we can talk about taking some of the weight off his shoulders."

Cynder smiled in response, rolling onto her side so that she was facing Spyro. "Alright, he can handle it himself for now."

"Finally we can get some rest." Spyro let his words hand in the air.

As the room faded into silence, Cynder reminisced about what had led them up to this point. The restful moments were few and far between. Even when they did catch a break, their peace always seemed to get shattered by once source or another, most of the time that source being Zach.

Her mind drifted back to the night in the gardens when Zach returned for the first time. It had been so peaceful until he had showed up. But thinking back, there was something more that happened that night; something that happened just between her and Spyro. It was the reason they had ended up in the secret alcove in the first place.

Cynder looked over at Spyro, watching him as he gazed out of her window. Her mind raced with possible reasons, but the all too familiar doubt plagued her mind.

"Hey Spyro…" Cynder looked sheepishly over at the male. "When we were in the gardens that night… when you took me to that alcove… what were you going to say?"

Spyro was startled by her question. Even though he thought about the event frequently, he never really thought about what he would say to her if he ever wanted to bring it up again. He knew exactly what he was going to say to her. It was the same thing he had struggled to say for weeks.

Looking at Cynder he could only feel his emotions intensify. He wanted to say it badly, but at the same time he didn't want to push her away. It seemed like he had just mended their relationship after his last blunder.

Cynder began to look at him in confusion and concern as he mulled over his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, Spyro opened his mouth.

"I was just going to say that I hoped you would stay with us here at the temple. You're my friend Cynder, and you mean a lot to me, especially after what we went through." Spyro smiled sheepishly over at Cynder, mentally chastising himself for not telling her everything. He was telling the truth with what he had said, but he wanted to say so much more.

Cynder smiled back at him in return. "Thanks Spyro, it means a lot to her you say that." Conflicting thoughts and emotions ran through Cynder's head. On one hand, Spyro had come out and said that she was important to him. Sure it wasn't exactly what she wanted to her, but it was definitely a start. However, new thoughts began to plague her mind as well. What if Spyro only considered her as a friend? She would never give up any kind of relationship with him, but she didn't know if she would be able to stand only having Spyro as a friend. If he considered her more than a friend, wouldn't he have said so?

Shaking her head, Cynder tried to clear her mind of the subject. Looking too much into what he said would only cause trouble. She could be content simply taking what he said at face value… for a while at least.

"It's strange to think that was only a few weeks ago." Cynder stood up and walked over to her window, looking out into the night sky and reminiscing about recent events.

"It's even stranger to think about what we were doing a few days before that." Spyro walked over and stood next to Cynder, looking up at the night sky as well.

Cynder laughed. "I suppose it was, but at least that part of our lives is over and done with. We have a few more recent problems to sort through now."

"I really wish we didn't" Spyro took a step closer to Cynder, almost pressing up against her side. "I wish we could just get some time to ourselves, you know…"

"Yeah…" Cynder leaned over, letting Spyro hold her weight as she let out a heavy sigh. "But like I said, we still have to deal with a few crazy renegade apes, a temple full of fire guardian candidates, and Zach…"

Spyro smiled, partially from her comment and partially from Cynder's contact. "I still don't understand Zach. He seems to have settled down after…" Spyro shuddered at the memories, "what happened, and he has done a few things to make me want to help him with whatever crazy endeavor he has planned. But at the same time, part of my mind keeps wondering if this is all an act. That somehow he put together an elaborate plan to get something from us…"

Cynder moved her head back to look at Spyro. "I understand your doubts Spyro, but you have to admit. He's had more than enough chances to try something. And his explanation fits with the guardians' story of what they found. And you and I know the things Malefor was capable of."

Spyro let out a heavy sigh, pulling himself away from Cynder and walking to the middle of the room. "It's not that I don't trust him, it's just that he's so secretive with what's going on. I really think all he wants to do is go back home, but there's just something strange about his circumstances. I don't understand what part we could possibly play in getting him home… and I don't want to pull you into harm's way again.

"Hey" Cynder walked over and looked sternly at Spyro. "I can take care of myself. Or do I need to show you the same thing I showed Comet?"

Spyro laughed and turned to fully face Cynder. "I know you can handle yourself Cynder. I guess I'm getting a little worked up about nothing. It can be kind of stressful when everyone is relying on you, but you're the only one left in the dark."

"You're not alone in this Spyro. You have others to help you along the way; the guardians, as strange as they are, will always help you. And I'll always have your back."

"Thanks Cynder. I guess I think a little narrowly sometimes." Spyro took a deep breath only to have his mouth open into a large yawn.

Cynder smirked and glanced over at Spyro. "You look tired Spyro. You know… you could stay here to sleep if you want. It's late and it's a fair distance back to your room."

Spyro looked back at Cynder, disappointment in his voice. "I probably shouldn't. I already cut it close with the guardians once, and I really don't want to do it again." Spyro glanced at the door before looking back at Cynder. "You're right though. I should probably get some sleep, and you should as well. It's going to be a big day for all of us tomorrow.

"Alright." Cynder nodded her head as Spyro walked over to the door of Cynder's room.

As Spyro walked out the door he turned back to Cynder. "Goodnight Cynder."

"Goodnight Spyro." Spyro turned and walked out the door. As his tail disappeared through the door, Cynder called out to him again. "Hey Spyro!"

Spyro stuck his head back through the door. "Yeah?"

"Thank you, for walking me to my room. It was nice."

Spyro scratched the back of his head, his cheeks turning a darker shade of purple in the dim light. "You're welcome." Turning once again, Spyro walked out of the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Cynder smiled to herself after Spyro had left the room, curling into a ball to keep herself warm. Her thoughts remained on the dragon that had just left her room and the conversation they just had. She may not have figured out quite what she wanted to, but she felt more confident than ever. Their relationship was stronger than it had even been, even if wasn't exactly where she wanted it.

Settling down again, Cynder prepared to drift off into the throws of sleep. Just as she was about to fall asleep, quick footsteps in the hallway snapped her back to consciousness. Thinking it may be Spyro; Cynder picked her head up and looked at her door.

A quiet sob filtered into her room before she heard the door across the hall slam shut. Confused, Cynder got off her bed and walked to the door. The sound could have only come from Chara's room.

Walking outside of her room, Cynder stood hesitantly outside Chara's door. She couldn't hear anything coming from inside the room, but she knew she heard Chara enter.

Reaching around with her tail blade, Cynder tapped it against the door a few times.

"Chara? Are you ok in there?"

"Go away!" The heavy door muffled the reply, but Cynder could clearly hear the anger in her voice.

"You don't sound ok. Can I come in?" Cynder waited quietly for a reply.

Chara hesitated, almost a minute passing before she answered. "I suppose you would come in anyway if I said no?"

Cynder smiled on the other side of the door. "That would be a good assumption."

A few more moments of silence passed between the two. "Is it just you?"

Cynder looked down the hall. No one else was in sight. "Yes."

Cynder heard footsteps on the other side of the wall before the door opened to reveal Chara's frustrated face on the other side. "Come on."

Cynder slipped through the door before Chara shut it behind her. Turning around, she could see Chara was in a very agitated state. Her muscles were tensed as if ready for a fight while her jaw remained clenched in anger. Her tail lashed impatiently back and forth as she turned to face Cynder. "Alright, you're in here. What do you want?"

"Something's bothering you. Do you want to talk about it?"

Chara let out an aggravated huff before moving and lying down on her bed. "I'm fine Cynder, really."

"Chara, you look like you're about to tear someone's head off" Cynder moved closer to Chara. "Is this still about Flint?"

"I almost wish it was…"

"What's going on then?"

Chara let out a heavy sigh, "you know, I was really surprised when I found out that Zach was going to be here during the trials. To tell the truth, I was actually kind of excited. I had wanted to get to know him more ever since we ran into him in the market in Warfang…." Chara paused. "I guess he just doesn't want anyone to get close to him."

Cynder let out a heavy sigh, her recent conversation with Spyro on the same subject coming back to her. "I know what you mean Chara. He's pretty secretive around all of us. I can't say any of us really tryst him just yet."

"It's not that I don't trust him… it's just…" Chara looked down at the ground, shame breaking through the anger on her face. She let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "I told him what I told you not that long ago… you know… but he just went off on me… yelled something about 'getting the stupid idea out of my head…'"

"He said what?" The severity of Zach's comment startled Cynder.

"Maybe I shouldn't have pushed as hard as I did… you know, he's a little bit jealous of you and Spyro… of what you two have together. For some reason he thinks he could never have any kind of relationship."

Cynder let out and angry growl, standing to her feet before storming towards the door. "I can't believe him…"

"Cynder?"

"I'll be right back Chara. I have an idiot to go take care of…"

Cynder stormed out of the room, immediately turning down the hallway and heading towards Zach's room on the other side of the temple. He had kept his secrecy for long enough, but taking it out on Chara was completely uncalled-for. Reaching Zach's room, Cynder threw open Zach's door and stormed into his room. Zach was resting on his bed, gazing out at the stars.

"What the hell Zach."

Zach turned, giving Cynder a very irritated glare as he stood to his feet. "Well, good evening to you too Cynder."

"What makes you think you can just do that? I am getting sick and tired of your secrecy." Cynder stormed up to Zach so she was standing nose to nose with him. For once, Zach didn't back down from her advance.

"And I'm getting sick and tired of your attitude. What is your problem?"

"You! You are my problem Zach. What gives you the right to go off on people like what you did to Chara?"

"So that's what this is about." Zach let out an angry huff. "And do you mean going off on someone like you're doing now, or something different. Because if you mean something different; I'm at a loss."

Cynder growled and struck Zach across the face with her claws. Three sharp cuts appeared along his face, but he made no move to acknowledge them. "Shut up and listen Zach, because I'm only going to say this once. I don't know what happened to you, what secrets you're hiding, or how you plan on solving your problems, but know this. You are not the only one who is struggling through something. I don't care if your secrets could resurrect Malefor and bring about the end of the world. It doesn't give you any reason to go around being a jerk. She took a chance in telling you that, and all you did was come back with an angry retort based on things you won't explain to anyone else."

"You don't understand Cynder. No one could understand what I have to deal with." Zach growled again, but his anger had mellowed after Cynder struck him across the face.

"You're right Zach. No one understands what you have to deal with. But do you know why? It's because you won't tell us a damn thing about it! You keep all these secrets and yet you expect us to trust you? You of all people should know that's not how the world works."

"Believe me Cynder, if I could tell you…"

"What! You would? I really don't know if you would Zach. Why all these secrets? You won't even tell us where you're from for ancestors' sake. The only things we know about you are the things that you've done for or to us. And let me tell you, those things don't paint the most pleasant picture."

Zach's anger raised again, his voice rising to match Cynder's. "What? You think I want to be here? You think I wanted to do those things? _**You **_of all people should know what _**that's**_ like. I have been thrown into a situation I never wanted to be in with no information as to what I'm supposed to do. All I've been trying to do since day one is get home. So believe me, once I get there, you won't have to worry about me coming back."

Zach's last outburst left the room in silence as his voice stopped echoing off the wall. Cynder stood for another moment, staring down Zach as he finished his outburst.

Shaking her head, Cynder turned and headed for the door to Zach's room. Upon reaching it, Cynder turned around and looked back at Zach. He had turned his back to her and lied down on his bedding. Speaking in a much lower voice, Cynder let her words float softly across the room as she left

"She really cares about you Zach."

Cynder shut the door behind her, still furious at Zach. Nothing he could have said would have made her mood any better when she arrived, but what he did say had only worsened her mood.

Walking into the hallway, Cynder tuned to head back to her room only to run straight into Spyro.

"Hey." Spyro smiled at her as she rebounded off his chest and regained her balance. "What happened to getting some rest?"

Cynder shot an angry glare over her shoulder towards Zach's room. "I had a little situation that needed to be taken care of. Although I can't say I was very effective."

Spyro's smile faded a little. "I can't say I didn't hear you. Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Letting out a heavy sigh, Cynder turned back to Spyro. "No, not yet anyway. I have a few things to take care of."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. How about I tell you tomorrow? Zach might tell you what happened by then, but I wouldn't ask him about it."

"Alright, I'll remember that." Spyro looked down the hall before looking back at Cynder. "Are you sure you don't need help with anything?"

"I'm fine Spyro. You should get some rest anyway."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning then. Goodnight Cynder."

"Goodnight Spyro."

Zach sat silently in his own room. The conversation he heard between Spyro and Cynder had long ago faded into the night, leaving him in silence. The three scratch marks across his face still stung, but their distraction went largely unnoticed as he sorted through his thoughts. He could have easily removed the scratches, but his mood kept him from doing so.

Thinking about it, Cynder was right. He really didn't have any reason to be so harsh.

The more time he spent here, the more agitated he became. And now he was starting to take that agitation out on other people. Rolling onto his back, Zach stared up at the ceiling. Even if he didn't want someone that close to him, he had probably just pushed away one of the closest things he had to a friend.

Sighing, Zach closed his eyes and attempted to drift off to sleep. He would have a lot to sort through when he woke up.

"Zach… Come on Zach it's time to get up. Aren't you used to waking up on time yet?" Makias prodded Zach with one of his claws, eliciting a groan from Zach.

Zach muttered to himself as he stood to his feet. "One more day… and then I can get out of here."

"What was that?" Makias backed up towards the door as he waited for Zach to get up.

"Nothing…" Zach stretched and turned towards the door.

"Zach?" Makias raised an eyebrow as Zach approached. "What happened to your face?"

Zach reached up and brushed one of his hands across his face, wincing when he touched the area where Cynder had scratched him. "Oh, that. I suppose that means you don't know yet."

"Know what?" Makias gave Zach a questioning look as they walked out into the hall together.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough" Zach winced again as the scratches started to sting again. He had almost forgotten Makias' relation to Chara. Depending on how he reacted, it could be one more person thrown into the mix.

"Ok… never mind then." Makias thankfully dropped the subject. "So are you ready for today? It sounds like you're in for a tough day."

"And how is this different than any other day?" Zach smiled a little as the two walked into the large central chamber. All of the other residents of the temple were already there. The guardians stood together on one side of the room while the rest of the dragons sat in a semicircle around them.

Spyro and Cynder sat together off to the side of the guardians and away from the rest of the candidates. Seeing Zach enter the room, Spyro beckoned him over.

As Zach approached, Spyro turned to Cynder, whispering something to her as Zach got closer. By the time Zach sat down next to Spyro, Cynder had turned to face him. Her face still held a dulled anger present from the night before, but after a few moments her anger faded away to mild shock.

"You left it there?" Cynder leaned behind Spyro to whisper to Zach, tilting her head in the direction of the scratches on Zach's face.

"Yeah, just a little friendly reminder I suppose." Zach glanced at Spyro to see if he was listening. The purple dragon seemed to be preoccupied with the guardians' conversation. "Look… about last night. I'm sorry."

Cynder grunted in response, although she was clearly not as angry as she was the night before. "It's not me that you have to apologize to."

Zach opened his mouth to speak again, but Terador's call for attention forced him to turn back to the guardians.

"Good morning young dragons. Today will be one of the larger tests for the candidacy. Each of you will pit yourselves against one of Spyro, Zach, or Cynder. Each of your possible opponents holds different challenges that must be overcome when fighting them. Use your knowledge of them to determine your best opponent and the terms for the match. How you have retained and implemented your skills you have learned over the past week will be the major evaluation for this trial, not whether or not you defeat your opponent. Even then, your opponents will not be allowed to eliminate you for the first two minutes of the match. Because this is your fist major spar with an opponent, we are allowing you these choices. Remember that in actually combat, you will rarely get to determine the conditions or opponent in such a way."

A few murmurs ran through the candidates.

"And remember, this is only a single part of you trials for candidacy. While the more physical aspects will largely decline after today, we still have many other aspects to consider." Terador turned back to Cyril and Volteer before back to other candidates. "Either way, we have randomly selected the order in which you will choose your opponent. Only two of you will be able to pick the same opponent, as we don't want to exhaust them. Ashe, you may choose first"

Ashe looked over at his three possible opponents. Each had their own strengths he would have to fight against. Spyro could easily match him in strength, and his powers, as the purple dragon, would make things difficult from the start. On the other hand, what Cynder didn't have in power, she easily made up for in speed. Not only could she run circles around him, but her unique powers would be difficult to fight against as well.

And then there was Zach, a dragon that was still a mystery to him and the rest of the candidates. He didn't know what abilities Zach had, but the fact that the guardians were offering him as an opponent meant that he must have something to fall back on. Then there was the ribbon exercise. Zach had somehow managed to avoid them for the entire afternoon, and there could easily be a correlation between that and how Zach fought. If he picked Zach, he would be going against a completely unknown and unpredictable enemy, and that was something he didn't want to do, even if the guardians did say he could dictate terms.

"I'll pick Spyro." Ashe nodded in the direction of the purple dragon.

Spyro smiled in response. "Don't think I'm going to go easy on you now."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Ashe smiled back, "besides, I want to see how I stack up against the legendary Spyro."

Terador spoke up again. "Alright then, Chara, you may choose next."

"Zach." Chara answered without a moment's hesitation, startling the guardians and eliciting a groan from Zach.

"Alright, Flint, you're next."

Flint pondered his options for a moment similarly to Ashe before settling on a decision. "I think I will choose Zach as well." Flint turned so he was looking straight at Zach, an arrogant smile on his face. "I'll see what kind of abilities you've been hiding this whole time

Terador smiled, catching Flint's reasoning. "Very well, that means Zach is no longer an option. Comet, you may now choose between Spyro or Cynder."

Comet didn't take much time to answer. "I think I will go against Cynder."

Cynder scowled over at Comet.

"I'm sorry about yesterday Cynder, but I know I can do better than what I did. I didn't mean any disrespect."

Cynder's face softened a small smile forming on her face as she nodded to Comet in acknowledgement.

Terrador turned over to Felix, "Felix, you may also choose between Spyro or Cynder. Crispen, I am sorry but you will have to fight against whoever is left."

Felix looked nervous as he examined his two options, after a minute he finally settled down, taking in a deep breath to steady his nerves. "I think that I would like to have Cynder as an opponent."

Terador nodded in acknowledgement before turning over to Crispen. "Alright Crispen, that means your opponent will be Spyro."

Crispen nodded back to Terador.

"Alright then, now that you all know who your opponents are, you have a little time to prepare. The matches will go in a similar order to how you picked your opponents, although we will have to rearrange some of the matches so the other fighters can rest between their bouts. Ashe, you will go against Spyro. Chara, you and Zach will be next. Comet, you will fight Cynder after that. Following those matches, Crispen will go fourth, Flint fifth, and Felix will go last. If there are no other questions, the first match will start in a half-hour. Spyro, Ashe, I suggest you both go and prepare. The next match will start as soon as theirs is finished, so Zach and Chara, I want you to stay close to the arena. Other than that, the rest of you are free to do as you wish until it is your turn, though I suggest you go watch the matches. You are dismissed."

Terador turned and left the room, Cyril and Volteer following after him, leaving the candidates in a room by themselves.

Spyro stood up next to Zach, turning toward the arena. "I guess I should head to the arena then."

Cynder and Zach stood up and followed after him, walking on either side of Spyro as they moved down the hall. Zach turned his head so he could talk to Spyro. "I suppose I should go with you, seeing as I'm supposed to be there by the time your match start. That, and the fact that I want to see your match against Ashe."

"Hmm… I'm interested to see how this will end up as well…" Spyro looked off in thought.

Cynder spoke up from the other side of Spyro, giving him a playful nudge as she spoke. "What? Is the legendary purple dragon nervous?"

"No, I wouldn't say I'm nervous. It's just that, other than Cynder, I haven't fought against any other dragon before. I'm not nervous; I guess I'm kind of excited to see just what these candidates can do."

"Easy for you to say" Zach almost snorted next to Spyro. "You at least have experience fighting to fall back on."

Spyro looked over at Zach with a smirk on his face. "You've been training with the candidates haven't you?"

Zach scowled, "I wouldn't really call it training."

"Relax Zach; I'm sure the guardians wouldn't put you up to this if you weren't ready."

Zach let out a low hum as the group entered the large arena. "Whatever… hopefully I won't have to deal with anything else like this after tonight."

Spyro and Cynder stopped to look at him quizzically. "Why is that?"

Zach caught himself, "I can't say yet…"

Cynder rolled her eyes and Spyro shook his head in response.

Spyro looked over at Cynder. "Anyway, I should get going. Good luck with your matches, I'll see you later, you too Zach."

Cynder nodded to Spyro before he moved across the arena to prepare for his match with Ashe. Once he was out of earshot, Cynder turned to Zach.

"Alright, I'm not letting you keep this one to yourself. What's going on?"

Zach let out a heavy sigh, Cynder was already mad at him, and this wasn't going to help things at all. "You know I can't tell you Cynder."

"Oh no you don't Zach; you still haven't given us a reason. You keep everything a secret from us, and I am sick and tired of it. You may think that your secrets are yours alone, but they're beginning to hurt the people around you, and I'm not going to put up with it anymore."

Zach let out a low grow, "you wouldn't understand…"

Cynder's lip curled "enlighten me."

"Look, I have nothing against you, really. But the guardians…"

"I don't care about the guardians right now Zach. You will tell me what you're talking about, or the guardians will be the least of your worries."

"Fine, I'll tell you, but under the condition that you don't tell Spyro about this until later."

"You can't be serious…"

"I'm only asking you to keep this from him until later tonight when I get the chance to tell him myself."

Cynder looked carefully at Zach, obviously not liking the terms,

Zach spoke up again, "look at it this way, if you feel like you absolutely have to tell Spyro, there's no way I could stop you. I'm just asking you not to tell him so I don't have to deal with the guardians."

Cynder sat down on the edge of the arena, looking at Zach. "I'm listening."

"Will you at least try to not tell Spyro?"

"I'm not making any promises."

"I don't suppose it will matter soon anyway." Zach moved over and sat down next to Cynder, looking around the arena for anyone who might be close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation. Spyro and Ashe were on the far side of the arena preparing, and the other candidates and guardians had yet to enter, leaving Zach and Cynder alone on their side of the arena.

"Well here goes nothing. You're going to have to try to stay with my explanation, and I'm not promising it will make any sense."

Cynder nodded her eyes boring into Zach's skull.

"I guess it kind of starts all the way back in Warfang, when we chased Spyro to the courtyard. After Spyro went in to go see you…"

"You saw that?"

"Yes I saw that… anyway, after you were both asleep, I left the city." Zach scratched at the back of his head. Looking back on his decision it really had been a stupid idea. "While I was out in the woods, I ended blacking out, but it wasn't from normal causes. When I woke up, I was in some sort of library with a huge hourglass in the middle. A dragon came to me there calling himself the chronicler." Zach figured changing minor parts of the story wouldn't hurt. There were some things he still needed to keep from Spyro and Cynder. "He was interested in me because he couldn't see anything in my book like he could with any other dragon. He wanted me to find his 'physical' form so we could talk without the limitations of the dream state we were in. Making a long story short, he said that I needed to find Spyro to break the barrier into his world as I couldn't do it by myself. That's why I came back to the temple. Even though I knew you and Spyro wouldn't trust me for a long time, I needed your help to find the chronicler…" Zach trailed off, letting Cynder process his story.

"What was so secretive about you seeing the chronicler that you couldn't tell us? And why would the guardians think that would cause Spyro to make a rash decision?" Cynder looked doubtfully at Zach

"I suppose I wasn't entirely complete with my story. Cynder, it's not so much what, as it is who… The chronicler is actually an old friend of yours. Ignitus says he couldn't be prouder of you and Spyro."

Cynder's jaw slackened as she looked at Zach in disbelief. "Ignitus is… but how? You'd better not be lying about this Zach."

"I swear Cynder. I wouldn't lie about something like this."

"I still can't believe it, Ignitus being the next chronicler…" Cynder trailed off. "But why wouldn't he have said something to Spyro. Losing Ignitus hurt him more than anything I've ever seen."

Zach almost smiled to himself. "That's because you were unconscious for the one thing that hurt him more… but anyway, Ignitus asked me about you and Spyro saying something about not being able to see into your books. I would imagine that because he couldn't talk to you either. Even if he could, it seemed like he used most of his energy talking to me."

Cynder looked carefully at Zach again. "You're either telling the truth, or a very good liar."

"What could I gain by lying to you about this?"

"A few things actually… but I still don't get why the guardians would tell you to keep this from us."

"Think about it. If Spyro knew Ignitus was the chronicler, don't you think he would have immediately jumped at the chance to go?"

"I suppose I can see where you're coming from." Cynder looked across the arena at Spyro. She knew what this news would mean to him. "He really misses Ignitus… and you want me to keep this from him?" Cynder turned back to Zach as she finished, conflict in her thoughts causing her to look at him with an accusing expression, her tail flicking back and forth occasionally.

"Just until I can tell him myself Cynder, the guardians said we could leave tomorrow… that is as long as Spyro agrees. Do you trust me on this?"

"I can't say. I've grown to trust you more in the last week, but I can't say what I think when you throw something like this at me. Then again, it's not really me you have to worry about" Cynder looked across the arena at Spyro again, deep in thought. "I'll tell you what Zach, I won't tell Spyro what you told me, but in return, I want you to ask Spyro to accompany you without telling him as well. We'll see if he really trusts you enough to lead you, or if it will take the desire to see Ignitus again to lead you."

Zach looked at Cynder in surprise. "Is that a bet?"

"No. It's a way for me to see how much Spyro really trusts you. If he doesn't agree right away, you can go ahead and tell him. But if he doesn't, why don't we keep it a surprise until he finds out himself."

"Alright, I can do that… but you said 'we.' Does that mean you're going too?"

"Come on Zach, do you really think I'm going to let you two go alone. Someone has to be there to keep you both out of trouble. Do you have a problem with that?" Cynder turned and smirked at Zach.

Zach smiled back in response. "I don't, but some other people might."

"Well that's their problem now isn't it?"

"I suppose." Zach let out a deep breath, his anxiousness from the last few minutes' conversation draining away. "Now that that's settled, we should probably pay attention to the matches today. It looks like Spyro and Ashe are about to start."

"This should be interesting." Cynder commented as she watched Spyro and Ashe walk to their respective position out on the arena floor. Volteer was out in the center of the arena awaiting them.

"Ashe, you're opponent for today is Spyro. Do you have any conditions you wish to designate for this match?"

Ashe shook his head. "No, just me against Spyro."

"Very well; the match will end when one of you is pinned, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to continue the match. Spyro, you have two minutes before you can pin Ashe, although you are still allowed to fight back until then. Are the rules understood?"

Both dragons nodded.

"Very good then; you may begin once I have reached the edge of the arena." Volteer nodded before slowly walking toward the edge of the arena.

Spyro and Ashe began to slowly circle each other as Volteer trotted to the outside of the arena.

Zach watched the match with a detached interest, his mind preoccupied with heavy thoughts. Ashe matched Spyro blow for blow in the first two minutes of the fight, but Spyro seemed to follow a very basic pattern of attacking. Zach unconsciously picked up on it after the first thirty seconds.

Dodge, counter, feint, physical, dodge, elemental, dodge, counter, feint…

That all changed when the match passed the two minute mark.

Zach's interest perked up as he began to lose track of both the combatants' maneuvers. Ashe's manipulation over his fire element changed drastically, contorting his jets of fire into attacks that Zach couldn't even dream of.

Spyro began to attack with multiple elements as well; changing every few seconds in an attempt to keep Ashe off balance.

Zach watched in awe again as their fight took to the air as well, turning their fight into a three dimensional battle. Their twists and turns in the air left jets of fire streaming off at strange angles.

It was hard to believe that they weren't trying to kill each other.

Eventually, the match came to a close when Spyro knocked Ashe out of the sky with a well-placed earth shot. Diving down on his stunned opponent, Spyro pounced before Ashe could recover, ending the match by pinning Ashe to the ground.

Volteer walked out onto the field as Spyro helped Ashe up off the ground. "Very good, Ashe that was an astounding performance. Spyro, you did fantastic as well. Thank you for not seriously injuring our candidate here." Turning to the side of the arena, Volteer called out to Zach and Chara. "Chara, your match versus Zach is next. Will both of you finish your preparations and come out onto the arena please?"

Spyro shot a playful glance over at Ashe once Volteer was done speaking. "You were holding out on me…"

"And you weren't? Come on… I saw how much you changed after Volteer called out that two-minute mark." Ashe gave Spyro a playful shove as they walked off the arena together.

Zach stretched off on the side of the arena as Spyro and Ashe moved off, making sure he had his full range of flexibility. He would need it for the coming match. Looking across the arena, he could see Chara doing a similar set of stretches. He had no idea how he was going to fight her. He was putting his week's worth of training up against her years, not to mention her choice to determine to conditions of the battle. Any way he looked at it, he was going to get his ass kicked, and she had more than enough motivation to want to.

He didn't doubt why she had elected to fight against him. Even from across the arena he could feel her source of motivation. It wasn't rage, but a highly focused anger. A highly focused anger directed at him.

Standing up from his stretches, Zach started to walk out on to the arena only to be stopped by Cynder.

Cynder looked over at Zach. "A few things to remember before you fight. Don't let your opponent get behind you, never underestimate their abilities. And probably the most important thing, remember than any battle in the air is three-dimensional. You have to worry about up and down as well as your sides. And when you're attacking in the sky, remember to stay off the axis. Use oblique plains to stay unpredictable. Got it?"

Zach nodded, partially understanding what Cynder told him.

"Good. Now get out there… And try not to get your ass kicked." Cynder smiled and pushed Zach out onto the arena floor with her tail.

Zach tuned his head back toward her as he walked. "Thanks for the confidence booster…"

Cynder gave him another sly smile in return. "Don't mention it."

Turning back around, Zach could see Chara and Volteer patiently waiting for him at the center of the arena. Chara's impassive face greeted him as he stopped beside Volteer, not giving away the slightest hint to her mood, but Zach already knew how she was feeling.

"Chara, the rules for your match are the same as Ashe's. Do you have any other restrictions you would like to put on this match?"

Chara turned to Volteer, her voice still impassive. "Just one: No elements. I won't use mine, and Zach won't use his."

"Are you sure Chara? You're a very capable fire user."

"Yes."

Volteer looked at Chara and then to Zach with a look of pity, "Very well, neither of you will use your elemental abilities. Zach, remember that you must wait two minutes before you can pin your opponent. You may begin when I reach the edge of the arena." Once again, Volteer moved to the outside of the arena.

As he was walking, Chara stared Zach down. "What happened to your face?"

Zach had forgotten about the scratches on his face. "Hmm… oh those… Let's just say Cynder smacked some sense into me last night…"

Zach thought he saw a look of shame pass through Chara's impassive face, but it quickly disappeared.

"Chara… I…" Zach was cut off as Chara let out a low growl.

As soon as Volteer stepped foot on the edge of the arena, Chara launched herself at Zach.

Caught somewhat off guard, Zach hastily rolled to the side to narrowly avoid Chara's lunge. Rolling to his feet, Zach barely had time to recover before Chara lunged at him again.

More prepared this time, Zach swept his tail at Chara's legs as she passed, knocking her off balance.

Chara took Zach's attack in stride, rolling back to her feet without missing a beat.

Zach looked at Chara worriedly as they began to circle each other. If she attacked with that ferocity the entire match, he would have trouble keeping up.

Chara moved first again, jumping high at Zach's chest. Zach ducked under her charge and turned to follow her only to see her already on the ground beside him. Chara turned quickly when she hit the ground, lashing out with her tail and slamming it into Zach's side.

Zach grunted as Chara's tail sent him flying through the air, tumbling along the ground until he came to rest on his back. She pounced after him and landed on his chest, her talons digging into his scales.

She tried to close her jaws around Zach's neck, but in a flurry of scales and claws, Zach slipped out from underneath Chara. He rolled to his feet as he tore himself from Chara's grip, cringing slightly at the long marks down his side. Her talons had scraped large gouges though his scales, drawing blood.

"Come on Zach, I thought you would be a tougher opponent. This is just sad." Chara Circled Zach slowly as she spoke.

Zach only growled back in response, beginning to circle Chara in the same direction. She made the first move again, charging head long at him.

Zach sidestepped again, this time pivoting around and diving onto Chara's back as she turned around. Grabbing onto the spines down her back, Zach used his weight and momentum to pull Chara down to the ground. Bouncing hard against the sandy ground, he tried to pin her to the ground.

Chara quickly wormed out of his grip, turning around and kicking at his stomach. Not willing to put himself through any more punishment, Zach quickly let go, pushing off of her, he rolled to his feet, only to feel her ram square into his chest.

Zach slid across the ground, his body creating a smooth crevice in the sand below. Standing to his feet, he turned to see Chara standing a few feet away from him, obviously waiting for him to get up.

Chara snorted, "Pathetic."

Zach's growl deepened in response, any remorse he was feeling gone.

Volteer's voice barely broke Zach's concentration as he spoke from the sideline, "two minutes."

"Well Zach? Are you ready to stop messing around? Or is that just another of my stupid ideas?"

Zach ground his teeth together, not willing to answer.

"That's what I thought" Chara lunged at Zach again, her teeth bared and her talons extended out in front of her.

Zach flared his wings and took to the air, watching as Chara streaked underneath him. Digging her feet into the ground, Chara quickly pivoted and charged up into the air after Zach. Zach backed away as Chara shot into the air after him, her reckless charge sending her well past where he was flying.

Banking into a turn, Chara shot back down towards Zach, this time with the intent to drive him into the ground. Turning away from her, Zach propelled himself into a quick flight; she was hot on his heels as he swerved through the air.

Realizing he couldn't out run his pursuer, Zach pulled into a sharp climb, his body rocketing up toward the ceiling of the arena. Chara followed him closely, but as he neared the ceiling, she slowed down slightly in anticipation of Zach banking away from the ceiling.

It was the move Zach had been hoping for.

Flaring his wings at the last second, Zach flipped his body so his body was upside down, his momentum carrying him so his feet came into contact with the ceiling. Absorbing the shock with his legs, he pushed off the ceiling to pounce onto a shocked Chara below.

Crashing into Chara, Zach quickly gained the upper hand, pinning her wings to her back in a flurry of wings and claws. He wrapped his jaws around the base of her neck in an attempt to keep Chara in place as they dropped toward the ground. He could feel her struggling underneath, but he didn't dare let go because of the chance she could injure herself if she didn't recover from the height they were at.

As they neared the ground, Zach leveled out their decent before kicking off of Chara, sending her crashing into the ground below.

As he landed, Zach turned to see Chara struggling to pick herself off the ground, still dazed from her impact with the ground. Not wanting to give her another chance, Zach dove at her, quickly tackling her and pining her to the ground.

Chara struggled under Zach's weight, but he easily overpowered her in the state she was in. After only a few moments, Zach heard Volteer call the match from the side of the arena.

"You did very good Zach, you as well Chara. I can very well say I haven't seen a fight like that in ages."

On the ground, Chara had her face turned away from Zach, not willing to look him in the face. Between pants, Zach tried to force himself to speak. "Look Chara… I'm sorry about what happened last night."

Before he could speak any more, Volteer spoke up again. "You may let her up now Zach."

Zach stepped off Chara, offering her a hand at the same time. Chara stood up on her own, quickly turning away from Zach and walking out of the arena; knowing better than to follow her, Zach simply watched as she left the room before walking over to sit by Spyro and Cynder.

Spyro looked over at Zach with an amused expression on his face. "Well, I can honestly say I have never seen anyone pull off a move like that."

"Yeah… just don't expect me to pull that off again anytime soon. I'm as surprised as you are that I actually pulled that off." Zach took a drink of nearby water before lying down to relax.

Cynder stood up from her spot next to Spyro and began to walk toward the middle of the arena. "You may have to Zach. Remember that you have a match against Flint later this afternoon.

Zach groaned, "Don't remind me."

Zach watched as the next two matches go by in a bit of a daze.

Zach was impressed with how well Comet contended with Cynder. Where Cynder had bested him in only moment in their last match, Comet lasted well past the two-minute mark in this match. Zach began to understand why he had picked Cynder. Not only did he have some pride to regain, his speed let him contend with Cynder where he couldn't contend with Zach or Spyro in strength.

It was a good match, but it ultimately ended in the same way it had the day before, with Cynder pinning Comet to the ground.

Spyro's match with Crispen followed a similar pattern. It was impressive to watch Crispen's maneuvers and his impressive control over his element, but in the end, he was not physically a match for Spyro.

Before he knew it, Zach was up again.

Reluctantly standing to his feet, and slowly made his way out into the center of the arena where Flint and Terador were waiting.

Terador craned his neck over both of the opponents. "Alright, you both should understand the rules by now. Flint, do you wish to add any other circumstances?"

"No, I want to see what Zach can really do. It's bugged me for weeks now." Sarcasm laced Flint's voice as he spoke, causing both Zach and Terador to look at him in annoyance.

Terador almost smiled. "Very well, take your positions"

Zach slowly walked to his side of the arena, tuning around once he was in position to face Flint.

Flint sneered at Zach from across the room. "I've seen you're power Zach, it won't help you at all in this fight."

Zach only smiled. "I hate to break it to you Flint, but that's not the only thing I can do."

Flint's sneer seemed to falter for a moment, but his face immediately hardened as he took another step towards Zach. "We'll see about that."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Terador stopped walking once he reached the outside of the arena. "Alright, you may begin."

Flint opened up by shooting a short burst of across the arena. Zach only had to step to the side to avoid it, but he could feel the heat from it as it passed by.

"Feel that Zach? That's just a taste of what's to come. You don't stand a chance."

"Really, you think so? Because the way I see it. Beating you isn't going to cause me to break a sweat." Zach smiled to himself as he shot back at Flint. The longer he could keep Flint bantering, the closer he could get to the two-minute mark.

"Oh really, and why is that?" Flint laughed at Zach as he circled him, obviously not intimidated by Zach's comments

"Well… the way I see it. I beat Chara, granted it was difficult, but I still beat her…" Zach paused and glanced over at Flint. "And seeing as Chara kicked your tail yesterday…" Zach paused again, this time noticing an infuriated growl coming from Flint. "… Now you see what I'm getting at."

"Not that it's going to matter anyway." Flint opened his maw wide again, this time spraying a wave of fire at Zach's feet. Zach jumped away from the wave, landing heavily on his back legs and tearing a run into the sandy ground below. "I know what you can do. All I have to do is keep you out of physical range, and this fight is more than mine."

Flint followed with three large fireballs directed at Zach. Rolling to the side, Zach dodged the first two, but the third slammed hard into his side. Turning his head, Zach tried to protect his face as he felt the fire scald his scales and one of his sensitive wing membranes.

Holding his scorched wing out away from his body, Zach turned to face Flint again. "Eh…that's going to be raw for a while…"

"Still think this is going to be easy Zach?" Flint leered at Zach again, stepping forward to close the distance between them to mere feet.

"That's two minutes Zach." Terador's voice brought a smile to Zach's face.

"Well… now that we've hit two minutes… yes… yes I do." Zach walked up so he was nose to nose with Flint, a large smile on his face. "We'll see how your plan works if you can't see what you're trying to hit."

Zach couldn't help but laugh at the look on Flint's face as he disappeared right out from under his nose.

"What the…"

"Alright flint…"Flint's head swiveled around, unsuccessfully trying to find the source of Zach's voice."…So now that you've seen what I can do. How about we find out if you can fight without seeing me."

Flint released a torrent of flame into the air in an attempt to hit Zach, yet it came nowhere close to hitting the white dragon. "Come on Terador, this can't be fair."

Terador replied calmly from edge of the arena. "You must react to changes in your opponent's ability without hesitation. You have everything you need to beat your opponent, you simply need to focus."

Flint growled in frustration. "Easy for you to say. All right Zach! Come on out and fight!"

"Who said I wasn't?" Flint was surprised by a hard impact to his side, sending him rolling across the arena. Flint quickly rolled to his feet, releasing a long stream of fire towards where Zach had hit him. Once again, the stream splashed harmlessly against the outside wall."

"Quit toying with me Zach…"

"Who said I was toying with you. I want you to feel like you're doing well." Flint felt his legs get swept out from underneath him, causing him to fall hard on his face. Standing back to his feet, Flint released another torrent of fire from his mouth, slowly turning in a circle to create a ring of fire around him.

"I'm impressed… getting fire to keep burning on sand like that must take some bit of skill. But I'm not entirely sure how that's going to help you."

"Why don't you come and get me then?" Flint smiled satisfactorily at his ring.

"Well… if you insist." Zach landed heavily on flints back, forcing him onto the ground under Zach's full weight. Flint squirmed to get free, but Zach grasped onto one of the horns on his head, effectively pinning him to the ground.

After a few moments, Zach felt an ice cold mist pass over his body as Cyril put out Flint's ring of fire.

"This match is over. You both did very well. Zach, I was impressed by your use of your powers. Flint, your use of fire was phenomenal as well." Cyril walked into the center of the ring.

Flint stood up roughly, knocking Zach off balance in the process. "Yeah… whatever…"

As Flint stormed out of the arena, Zach saw Spyro and some of the other candidates walking out

Spyro lead the group, stopping in front of Zach to congratulate him. "It seems you can keep up your powers and fight at the same time."

Zach smiled over at Spyro. "It's a lot harder to maintain that while fighting. I would say that I could only do that five or ten minutes tops. And even then I would be exhausted afterward."

"Kind of like you're exhausted now?" Spyro give Zach a playful smirk.

"Yeah… kind of…"Zach started to walk toward the edge of the arena, Spyro and the other dragons following beside him. Looking at the other dragons, Zach could pick out Comet, Ashe, Cynder, and Makias. Most of them had incredulous looks on their faces, and Zach had a good idea why.

Ashe walked up alongside Zach, giving him a slight push with his wing. "Well, I can't say I'm not impressed. That's some ability you've been hiding from us. It has a bit of irony to it doesn't it?"

Zach laughed as he stretched out his sore body. "I guess it does, doesn't it."

"Still, that's really something. I don't suppose what you can do had anything to do with that orange ribbon task did it?"

Zach pushed at Ashe with his wing. "Trying to save some of your pride huh?"

Makias laughed. "Mine and a little bit of everyone else's."

"Let's just say that there were certain, intermediate instances where you had absolutely no possibility of finding me."

Makias shook his head from the other side of Zach. "You could have just said yes."

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?"

Cynder shook her head before looking at Zach. "Sorry Zach, but the fun is over for you today. I guess you'll finally get rest you wanted."

Zach turned his head to scan the arena, spacing under his breath. "Not yet I can't, I have one more thing to take care of." He though Chara might have returned to the by the time his second match came around.

Zach looked around the dragons standing on the outskirts of the arena, but he couldn't find the red dragoness anywhere.

Zach turned over to Spyro and Cynder. "Does anyone know where Chara went?"

"Depends on why you're asking Zach." Cynder gave Zach a suspicious look.

"I need to talk to her."

Cynder let out a heavy sigh, "I think I saw her heading outside of the temple a while ago. I don't know where she would have gone from there."

"Thanks" Zach nodded before turning and heading out to the balcony outside of the temple.

It was silent as Zach walked through the temple. All the other dragons were still in the arena watching the duels. The silence gave him time to think. He still had to figure out just what he was going to say…

Zach turned the corner to see Chara sitting out on the edge of the balcony, her back turned to him as she looked up at the stars. Padding quietly out onto the balcony, Zach sat down a few feet behind Chara. Still unsure of exactly what he was going to say, he simply sat and watched her for a moment as she gazed at the stars. Eventually sorting through his muddled thoughts, Zach took a deep breath before speaking.

"Chara."

Zach saw her jump slightly at the sound of his voice, obviously surprised, but she made no move to turn around. Seeing she wasn't going to move, Zach continued to speak. "Cynder said I would find you out here… I guess I just wanted to say that I was sorry for last night. You didn't deserve how I reacted…"

Zach watched Chara for a reaction, but she made none.

"I guess I'm not used to people treating me like that around here. For a few reasons actually, I think you deserve to know what happened between Cynder and I, seeing as its part of what started this."

Once again Zach stooped to look for a reaction from Chara. Once again she remained motionless. Zach contemplated taking a step closer, but decided against it and remained in the center of the balcony.

"It started just a few weeks ago, essentially when I first met them. We were trying to rescue Cynder from a remnant ape group in some nearby catacombs when an explosion and cave in separated us. I don't remember much of what happened to me after that… but what I do remember isn't pleasant. A creepy little ape put this… thing… around my neck. When he put it on, I lost control o f my actions. Someone…something… was controlling what I was doing, and they didn't have anyone best intentions in mind either. I can't remember much from the week the collar was on me. The memories come in bits and pieces, but I wish I could forget each one. I do remember one thing very clearly though." Zach let out a heavy sigh. He had tried to push the memories out of his mind and move one. What he had done scared him, but now he was bringing it up to share it with another person.

"Chara, I almost killed Cynder…"

Chara visibly jumped, but she kept her back to Zach.

"What I did broke whatever trust I had formed between Spyro and Cynder, and even though we sorted out what happened, you could understand why they wouldn't completely trust me right now…" Zach stopped again, taking in another breath.

"I guess this is relevant because after what happened, I'm not expecting anyone to try to get close to me. Between what happened with Cynder and my attempts to get home… what you said surprised me. I'm sorry I snapped at you like I did."

Chara attempted to sort through the mix of emotions running though her head. Anger from the night before, pity for what Zach went though, confusion from the sudden, strange story and fear… fear of what Zach had done.

Zach spoke up again behind her. "What you said was something I never expected… but it's also a thought I could never entertain. I don't belong here Chara. This isn't my home, and I have people who miss me. I need to go home. You're one of the closest things I would let myself consider a friend here Chara. I can't tell you how sorry I am that this happened to you. I'm sure you'll make a great fire guardian, and any dragon would be lucky to have you. Maybe under different circumstances…" Zach quickly cut himself off.

"Depending on what happens tonight, I may be leaving the temple tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to find my way home. I couldn't leave without fixing this. I really am sorry Chara. And I couldn't leave without saying goodbye to a friend. I can't expect you to understand my reasons for any of this; the full story isn't something I can share. All I can ask is that someday you forgive me for this…"

Inner turmoil flared up inside of Chara again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to forgive him. As much as she would like to deny it at the moment, she still had feelings for the dragon.

"Zach… Wait." Chara turned around to look back onto the balcony, but when she turned around, she was the only one on the veranda.

Heartache seized her again as a soft breeze floated across the balcony, making her realize how cold she felt… both inside and out.

Zach sat across from Cynder, who was currently staring at him with a scowl on her face. They were sitting alone in the on the roof of the temple in the same hidden location Cynder had shown him before waiting for Spyro to show up so they Zach could finally explain himself. Cynder had guessed where Zach was headed earlier and hid in the shadows to overhear the conversation between Zach and Chara. Needless to say, she wasn't too happy with Zach's execution.

Cynder's constant staring unnerved Zach. It was awkward enough sitting with her by himself, but sitting with her angry at him was something different entirely. Looking back at Cynder, he was once again met with her icy stare.

"What? Would you prefer that I leave and not tell her anything at all?"

Cynder let out a heavy sigh "I don't know Zach."

"Then why is it that you keep glaring at me?"

"You went and called her your friend, and then you go and do something like that. I know I can't understand why you did that, but there had to have been a better way."

Zach ran his talons back across his horns, turning his head away from Cynder. "I wish there was."

Cynder let out another sigh, standing up and moving so she was alongside Zach. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just…" Cynder paused before closing her mouth. It was clear Zach was just as distraught as she was.

"Yeah, I know. Let's just drop it. I'm already punishing myself over it anyway."

Cynder laid down next to Zach, hesitantly trying to change the subject. "So, what do you plan on telling Spyro?"

"I don't know. The same thing I told you I suppose. It shouldn't be that difficult."

"It's not the explanations that you should worry about. Remember that he has to trust you for this plan to get anywhere" Cynder stretched out onto her side, making herself comfortable on the cool stone of the temple roof. They had picked the roof to meet as it was otherwise deserted by the candidates. It would give them a little privacy to talk

Zach had talked with the guardians after the candidates' trials to making sure he could tell Spyro. After conferring with the other guardians, Terador told Zach that he could leave in the morning. They were now waiting on the roof for Spyro to finish talking with the candidates.

The sun had long since passed over the horizon, leaving the moon and stars to illuminate the rooftop. The cool night air felt good on Zach's scales as he stretched out on the cool stone. It helped to ease his sore muscles and some of his anxiety.

Before long, the sound of talons against hard stone alerted them to Spyro approaching them on the roof.

"Alright, I'm up here. Now will someone tell me what's so important?" Spyro moved and laid down next to Cynder

"It looks like we're finally going to get somewhere with our favorite, mysterious dragon." Cynder smiled and turned her head toward Zach.

Spyro turned to Zach. "Really? Well then I'm listening."

Zach sat up and made himself comfortable. "Do you want the short version or the long version?"

"Let's start with the short version and go from there."

Zach took a deep breath to steady himself. "A few weeks ago after I left Makias' house in Warfang, I ended up passing out in the woods. When I was unconscious, the chronicler ended up contacting me. Sparing you the details, he said I needed to physically come find him, and to do that, I needed you to be with me to break the barrier surrounding his island. So what I'm asking is for you to take me to the chronicler. Hopefully that way, he will get the answers he wants, and I will figure out a way to get home."

"That's it?" Spyro looked questioningly over at Zach, obviously expecting more. "No evil collars, no conspiracies, no near death experiences? You made it sound like this would be a hard decision to make."

"It wasn't so much what I'm asking you to do, but whether or not you believe me."

"If the chronicler trusts you enough to come see him, I don't see why me helping you is a problem." Spyro stood to his feet, turning to head back inside.

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "I guess I should have told you the long version then…"Spyro stopped and sat back down

"Huh?"

"Well… his intent was for you to determine if he could trust me. When he talked to me, he had no idea who I was, or what I'd done. He can't see into my 'book,' so he's using you as a kind of buffer. He knows less about me than you do."

"Oh…" Spyro broke eye contact with Zach, instead looking over at Cynder beside him.

Cynder brushed up against Spyro for support. "It's your decision Spyro."

Spyro thought for a moment before looking back at Zach. "You've done more than enough to reestablish trust Zach. I don't know what might have happened if you weren't with us a few times. I would be more than happy to go with you once the guardians let us leave."

Zach couldn't help but let a smile cross his features. "Actually, the guardians said we could leave tomorrow morning if you said yes. If it doesn't bother you, I would like to get home as soon as possible."

Spyro smiled as well. "As long as it isn't too early in the morning, I do need some sleep after today."

"Thanks Spyro, it means a lot."

"The one thing I don't get though is why the guardians wanted you to keep this from Cynder and me…"

Zach looked over at Cynder, catching a glimpse of a smile as she wiped it off her face. "I don't really know either…"

"Either way, you and I can leave in the morning."

Cynder prodded Spyro in the side. "Hey, don't forget about me here. Don't think you're going without me."

Spyro looked over at Cynder, concern in his voice. "I don't know if you'll be able to follow us to the floating isles. I don't want you to get put in harm's way again."

Cynder stood to her feet. "And what if you do get into trouble? Who's going to bail you out then? Sparks? I don't think so."

"Please Cynder. I don't quite understand how I found the chronicler the first time, and I don't know if you'll be able to follow us. I don't want you to be out there by yourself Cynder, especially after what's been happening around here." Spyro stood us as well to face Cynder.

"No, I got separated from you once and you almost killed yourself as a result. I'm not doing it again."

"Cynder, you can't go with us…" Spyro placed himself in front of Cynder to keep her from walking away.

"I'm not going to let you go without me." Cynder pushed into the purple dragon.

"Guys…" Zach took a step back, nervous of the exchange between the black and purple dragons.

"You're not going." Spyro stood firm.

"Are you going to stop me?" Cynder laughed, giving Spyro a skeptical look.

"Guys…." Zach took another step back.

"Bring it"

The three elder guardians sat leisurely around the reflecting pool in the center room of the temple. With the candidates done with their trials for the day, they were all left to relax. Terador took a deep breath, looking over his other guardians across the room. "Today was very interesting, don't you think?"

Volteer replied the speed of his speech a notch down from normal. "Indeed, I was quite surprised by the candidates' abilities in the ring. They all fared better than I would have expected. Zach surprised me as well."

Cyril broke into the conversation, surprise and interest in the voice. "I think things just got a little more interesting."

Volteer followed Cyril's gaze to see a very ragged looking Zach enter the room.

Soot covered the majority of his body, turning his white scales into shades of black and gray. The spots that weren't covered in soot were coated by fine ice particles. His wings and scales were ruffled and in disarray, giving him a ragged look. All three guardians stared at him as he entered the room.

Volteer looked at Zach with a mixture of surprise and amusement. "Zach? What happened to you?"

Zach shook out his wings, sending small ice particle flying thought the air. "I drowned in the sea of raging hormones."

"Ah, I see. Are Spyro and Cynder still outside."

"Yeah, but I'm sure they're not too far behind."

Terador motioned towards Zach's room. "Why don't you go clean up while you wait?"

"No, I think I'll wait for them. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of interested to see how this panned out."

They didn't have to wait long.

Spyro and Cynder walked into the central chamber together, Spyro looking scolded while Cynder had a triumphant smirk on her face.

Cynder spoke up first, a smile on her face. "We leave tomorrow morning."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Answers

"Will someone please tell me why we had to leave the temple so early this morning?" Zach cringed at the sound of Sparx voice as he spoke up from his position on top of Spyro's head.

"For the last time Sparx, we don't want to be flying out over the ocean once the sun sets. If we'd left any later, we wouldn't have been able to make a pass over the ocean at all toady." Cynder's irritated voice came from the other side of Spyro.

"Well I don't understand why we have to fly out over the ocean at all. It's tiring and there's no place to land." Sparx grumbled as the wind whipped against him.

"…Says the person who's sitting on top of my head." Spyro tossed his head back, dislodging the yellow dragonfly and flinging him out into the open air.

Sparx caught himself in the air before rushing to catch up with the rest of the group. "Hey!"

"That's exactly why we had to leave so early Sparx," Cynder's mildly amused voice barely broke through the wind whipping in Zach's ears. "We can't get caught out here when the sun sets or when we get tired. There is no place to land, and I don't plan on swimming back to shore."

"You didn't have to come you know." Zach grumbled more to himself as Sparx settled back onto Spyro's head, much to Spyro's displeasure. He had all but forgotten about the yellow dragonfly until he showed up just at he, Spyro, and Cynder were going to take off, demanding to be taken with them. It only took Zach five minutes of flight to decide that they shouldn't have allowed him to come.

Spyro's foster brother had adamantly refused to be left behind, forming their group of four that was currently flying out over the ocean.

Zach had to agree with Sparx somewhat though. He didn't fully understand why they were flying out over the ocean, and the dark depths below made him more than a little nervous. Spyro's plan didn't inspire confidence either. He didn't seem to have a specific destination, but more of a general idea. Right now the plan was to make one or two trips out into the ocean to see if Spyro could pick up on anything.

"Well you could have at least picked somewhere with better scenery… all there is out here is blue sky and blue water…" Sparx flipped down onto Spyro's nose.

Spyro snorted but didn't bother to dislodge the dragonfly. "You could go take a swim, I'm sure there are plenty of fish down there."

"Yeah, plenty of fish big enough to eat me." Sparx crossed his arms.

Cynder smiled widely, "all the more reason for you to go."

Sparx only shot an angry look at Cynder in response.

Zach let out a heavy sigh, "not to add to the drudgery, but do we have any idea where we're going? I know we have to be out here, but this ocean is a very big place. Isn't there any way to narrow this down? Aren't we looking for an island anyway?"

Spyro laughed "its more complicated than that. And if there were any way to do this faster, I would be happy to do it that way."

"I suppose doing this quickly is too much to ask anyway."

Sparx broke his silence again. "With these two, nothing is ever easy or simple."

"We should keep looking." Spyro pulled ahead of the others a little. "There's no telling how long this might take."

"Wait a second Spyro." Cynder stopped in the air, beating her wings to keep her in place. Spyro and Zach both slowed down to join her.

"What is it Cynder?" Spyro looked at her with worry.

"What is that, over there on the horizon?" Cynder motioned behind Spyro. Both Zach and Spyro turned to see what she was looking at. Six dark black blobs were flying over the horizon, and they were headed strait towards them.

Zach looked back at Spyro and Cynder. "Other dragons maybe?"

Cynder shook her head. "I doubt it… there's no reason for anyone to be out this way."

"They're too big to be dreadwinigs…" Spyro's voice carried traces of concern. "Should we go check them out?"

Zach looked at the objects with concern as well. "If it's all the same to you guys, I don't think I can keep myself up in the air all day."

"Let's keep moving, if we ignore them, hopefully they'll ignore us. We just need to keep an eye on them." Cynder took one last glance at the figures in the distance before heading forward again. Spyro and Zach were quick to follow.

As they flew, Zach noticed Cynder glancing behind her every few moments. When she stopped suddenly, Zach and Spyro had to flare their wings hard to stop near her.

Spyro flew up close to Cynder, "what is it Cynder?"

"They changed direction, and they're getting closer" a slight growl resonated in her throat as she eyed their pursuers.

Zach felt a chill run through his body. "This can't be good."

As the figures got closer, a deep look of worry crossed Spyro's face. "Those aren't dragons…"

"What do we do then?" Zach looked nervously from Spyro to Cynder.

Spyro paused for a moment. "They're moving to fast to outrun, and there's nowhere to hide right now. We really don't have any option other than to fight."

"We don't know they're going to attack yet do we?" Zach watched as the figured drew closer. He could now see different brown and tan colorations on the different figures approaching.

"I wouldn't count on them being friendly." Cynder growled as she beat her wings harder.

Spyro, Zach and Cynder waited silently as the figures grew closer. Each second the figures grew in size and their details became clearer.

"They're moving fast. They'll be on top of us in seconds." Spyro snarled as one of the approaching figures let out a loud screech. "And they're definitely not friendly."

Zach's voice carried traces of worry as he prepared for a fight. "Am I the only one concerned by the fact that they're twice our size?"

Cynder gave him a reassuring smile. "Size means nothing." Tilting foreword, Cynder dove towards their approaching enemies, Spyro flying right beside her.

Flying after them, Zach yelled over the wind whistling in his ears. "Yeah, but I'm sure it helps…"

Zach did not have time to think as the distance closed between the two groups. Before he realized it, Zach slammed into the chest of one of the figures, sending them both spiraling out of the sky.

Biting and clawing, Zach tried to gain an edge on his opponent. His larger opponent kicked and scratched at him with its hefty hind legs.

Digging his claws against the scaled chest of his opponent, Zach was shocked to find that it didn't have any form of front legs. Instead, two massive wings jutted out near its shoulder blades to serve as its major appendages. Startled, Zach released his opponent and kicked hard, separating them from their combined spiral. Zach tumbled through the air a few more times before throwing out his wings to steady himself while simultaneously hiding himself from view. He needed whatever advantage he could get.

Below him, his opponent screeched in rage as it regained its balance, swooping back up into the air in search of its target.

As his opponent circled up into the air, Zach took the time to get a better view of his opponent. At first glance, Zach could have mistaken it for a dragon, but the longer he looked, the more apparent the differences became. Large brown plates covered it's body in overlapping patterns, serving as large flexible scales. They were very different from the numerous smaller scales that covered Zach. Instead of front feet, his opponent had two very large wings spreading out from behind its shoulder blades. The wings were very similar to his own, but the membranes seemed thicker than his own, and his opponent seemed to have more control over the precise movements of his wings. Clusters of small, fur like spikes jutted out from many different places between the larger scales, protecting any exposed areas. Its head and tail were similar to that of a dragon's as well, but the heavy scales gave them a bulkier appearance. Its tail ended in large cluster of the spikes that grew across the rest of its body

It was a fearsome beast, and Zach knew what it was.

It wasn't a dragon… it was a wyvern.

As Zach studied the wyvern, it changed direction and shot back up into the sky, heading toward Spyro and Cynder, who were already in combat with the remaining five wyverns. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Zach raced up after the wyvern, quickly gaining ground and pouncing onto its back.

The wyvern screeched in surprise as Zach attempted to dig his talons thorough its thick scales. Unable to gain any purchase through the thick scales, Zach was thrown into the air again as the wyvern dove quickly.

"Man… that armor is thick…" Zach muttered angrily to himself as the wyvern turned to come back at him. "I just couldn't end up with any offensive powers now could I?" Zach stared at the wyvern as it closed on him. He had the ability to sneak around the wyvern, but he didn't know if he would be able to find a way to break through the thick scales covering the wyvern. His talons didn't seem to cause any damage. What he wouldn't give to have just one of Spyro or Cynder's abilities… but at least he seemed to be even with the wyvern on that aspect. It had to get close to him if it wanted to cause any damage as well.

The wyvern continued its charge toward Zach, opening its mouth for what Zach expected to be another of its loud screeches. Instead, flames flickered at the edges of its mouth as Zach saw it take in a deep breath. The implications of the situation finally dawned on Zach as the wyvern released a large fireball right at him.

Stopping his wings' natural rhythm, Zach forced himself to drop out of the way in a free fall.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Zach screamed from the adrenaline coursing through him. Things just got a lot harder.

Stopping his fall, Zach shot out of the way as the wyvern shot a series of thick fireballs in his direction. The freedom of the air allowed him to easily dodge them, but he couldn't dodge them forever. And it was only a matter of time before the wyvern got lucky.

Once again drawing on his last resort, Zach vanished from sight as the wyvern continued to hurl fireballs at him. He cringed at the large amount of energy it drew from his body, but it could be the only way to get the edge on the wyvern.

Circling back up around the wyvern, Zach tried to get close to it as it continued to search for him. It obviously had learned from Zach disappearance, as it continuously checked behind and above it to make sure no one was sneaking up on it. Unfortunately, it would never see Zach coming.

Flying just over the wyvern's wings, Zach looked for some way to get through its thick armor. Each scale looked thicker than the last, all of them seeming to make an impenetrable barrier down the wyvern's back. Zach pondered the possibility of checking its underside for any weakness, but the wyvern's sudden decision to rise in altitude force him down onto its back.

Zach scrambled against the thick armor, his talons sliding harmlessly off scales while the wyvern screeched in surprise at yet another sudden attack from behind.

Zach latched onto the wyvern's relatively unprotected wing joints, his talons ripping and tearing through the thick muscles used to keep the creature aloft. Blood splattered out from the fresh wound, covering the scales on Zach arms and chest.

Screeching in pain, the wyvern thrashed about below Zach, causing his talons to tear more through its mangled flesh before finally ripping free. Pushing off with his back legs, Zach floated in the air a few feet above the injured wyvern.

Zach watched as the wyvern tried hopelessly to keep in the air, fruitlessly attempting to use its mangled wings, but only destroying them further in the process. Spiraling out of control, the wyvern let out a pained screech as it plummeted towards the water below.

Zach flinched at the wyvern's horrid scream before forcing the noise to the back of his mind. He had a battle to fight.

Turning back into the air, Zach looked up toward Spyro and Cynder. Both were caught in combat with the remaining five wyverns. Why a second wyvern hadn't come after Zach was a mystery, but he was lucky one hadn't, and he could ponder the reasons later. Beating his wings, Zach quickly closed the distance between them.

Spyro and Cynder seemed to be having the same problem he did. They could get numerous hits on their targets, but the wyverns simply shrugged the attacks off due to their thick armor. Thankfully for them, the wyverns seemed unable to hit their quick moving forms.

Zach spotted one wyvern hovering off to the side. It seemed to be waiting on an opportunity to strike without hitting its comrades. However these wyverns operated, they definitely were not stupid, and they definitely worked as a group. Tilting his wings slightly, Zach angled toward the wyvern. It was time to even tilt the odds a little more in their favor.

Zach slammed into the wyvern just as fire was licking at the edges of its mouth. With a muffled cry, the wyvern fell away from Zach, smoke still streaming from its mouth. Zach did not chase after the wyvern, instead taking some time to recover from the impact.

"Decided to join the party huh?" Sparx anxious form flitted up to Zach as he watched the wyvern fall. Unfortunately for him, it recovered before it hit the water and angled back up toward Zach.

"Sparx! Now is not the time!" Zach yelled at the dragonfly, though he was glad the small dragonfly was alright.

Zach barely noticed a purple blur before it slammed headlong into the approaching wyvern. Latching onto the wyvern's stomach, Spyro angled his head down and released a powerful bolt of lightning through the wyvern and into the conductive water below. Jumping off the smoldering body, Spyro flew up to Zach as the wyvern splashed in the water below.

Zach turned and joined Spyro as he raced back toward Cynder, who was now dealing with four wyverns at once. "Well that's two down."

Spyro replied between heavy breaths. "Yeah… but there's still four more to go. We're not out of this yet."

Two of the wyverns noticed Zach and Spyro as they approached. Shrieking, they dove down on the two approaching dragons, forcing them to separate.

Looking over his shoulder, Zach saw one of the wyverns pursuing him with surprising agility. On the other side of the sky, Spyro had somehow turned the tables on his opponent and was now chasing it through the sky.

"Sparx, go back to the temple! Tell them what's happening!" Spyro shouted as he twisted through the air in an attempt to gain an edge on the wyvern he was chasing.

"But…"  
"Go!" Without further prodding, Sparx turned and zipped back towards the temple, his yellow glow disappearing from sight after only a few seconds.

Not being able to shake his opponent, Zach angled towards Cynder and her two opponents. If he could fly between them, he might be able to mix up his opponents. As he got closer, Cynder noticed him and derived his plan. Diving toward him, Cynder and Zach crossed each other's flight paths at breakneck speeds.

As they passed, their much larger pursuers were forced to deviate from their path, giving both Cynder and Zach a little more room to maneuver.

"What the hell are these things?" Cynder shouted as she dodged a fireball from her pursuer, quickly pulling a reverse loop and sinking her claws into its underside.

Zach dodged the claws of one as it tired to pounce on him in the sky. "They're wyverns!"

Cynder clenched her jaws onto the neck of the wyvern she was on, twisting sharply and drawing a sharp crack from the wyvern's neck. Jumping off, Cynder watched as the wyvern fell lifeless to the ocean below, the ocean slowly turning red around the body.

"Well they die just like everything else. Let's take care of them and get out of here." Cynder spun out of the way as a different wyvern shot past, screeching in rage at the loss of its comrade.

Zach flipped out of the way again as the wyvern chasing him shot up at him from underneath. "You make it sound so easy."

Spyro shot past hot on the heels of the wyvern he was chasing, spitting out short streams of fire to keep the wyvern from breaking away from him. "Less banter, more fighting."

"Easy for you to say…" Zach dodged the wyvern again as it streaked past. Turning toward it, Zach gave chase. He wasn't going to sit helplessly by.

Extending his talons, Zach crashed into the wing of the wyvern he was chasing. The wyvern screeched as its wing was smashed against its side. As Zach passed, he turned around to see the wyvern flapping its wings erratically, though it still remained in the air.

The wyvern wasn't going to last much longer.

"Spyro!"

Zach turned his head towards Cynder's desperate shout to see Spyro falling from the sky in an uncontrolled spiral. Locked in combat, Cynder could do nothing but watch.

Dashing away from his wounded opponent, Zach made a beeline for the spiraling purple dragon. Losing him in the depths of the ocean was an all too real possibility

Spyro landed hard in the ocean below, sending a large spray of water high into the air. Still hundreds of feet in the air, Zach trained his eyes on the spot Spyro went in, straining himself to keep focused on the single point in the endless ocean. Pulling his wings tight against his side, Zach attempted to streamline himself as much as possible as he dove towards the water below. Seconds from impact, Zach took a deep breath and closed his eyes in an attempt to brace himself for the impact with the water.

Impacting the cold water, Zach's lungs seized and his eyes snapped open. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn he was kicked in the chest.

Forcing himself to focus, Zach spotted Spyro's unconscious body slowly sinking into the depths below.

Ignoring the cold seeping into his body, Zach dove down after Spyro. His wings propelled him quickly through the water, allowing him to catch the sinking purple dragon.

Grabbing the purple dragon's arm with both of his own, Zach pumped his wings in an attempt to pull both of their bodies back to the surface. Slowly but surely, they both began to float toward the surface.

Heaving on Spyro's dead weight, Zach pulled him closer and wrapped his arms around Spyro's chest. If they made it back to the surface, he would have to keep both of them afloat. Looking above him, Zach could see the rippling surface of the water. Giving one last push with his wings, both he and Spyro's heads broke the top of the water.

Blackness clawing at the edges of his vision, Zach coughed as his lungs filled with air and water. They were safe for the moment, but there was not telling how long that would last. Zach didn't even know if Spyro was still breathing.

Trying to talk between coughs, Zach turned his head toward his purple companion. "Spyro... Spyro are you ok?" Spyro didn't respond, and as the dark edges began to crowd the edges of his vision, Zach began to worry about staying conscious himself. The cold water was starting to shut his body down.

"Come on Spyro… one of us has to stay conscious here… and I have a feeling it's not going to be me…"

Using what energy he had left, Zach flipped himself on to his back in an attempt to keep afloat. Up above him, he could see Cynder in a heated battle against the three remaining wyverns.

Pressing his head against Spyro's chest, Zach was relived to hear Spyro taking ragged breaths. He was alive for now, but there was no telling how long that would last.

Darkness flickering across his vision, Zach felt his grip loosening around Spyro, the purple dragon slowly sliding into the water. Zach tried to tighten his grip on Spyro, but his body did not seem to respond to his commands.

Darkness completely taking over his vision, Zach felt Spyro slide off his body before it went completely numb. And as his head slipped under the water, the last things he could hear were the battle cries of the wyverns above him.

Zach was woken abruptly as salty seawater rushed through his nose and into his lungs. Snapping back to full awareness, Zach flailed his arms wildly in an attempt to orient himself. Realizing that his head was above water and his body was on solid ground, Zach rolled onto his stomach and forced the water out of his lungs in a violent fit of coughing.

As his breathing finally began to settle, Zach picked his head up to look around. Somehow, he had ended up on the shores of a white, sandy beach. A few rocks covered what he could see of the beach, but his eyes were mainly drawn to the large citadel and expansive cave system composing the center of the island.

After a moment of staring at the landscape, Zach turned back to see Spyro lying a few feet away from him, still unconscious. Struggling to his feet, Zach walked to short distance to stand over the purple dragon.

"Spyro, get up. Spyro!"

Spyro groaned and rolled over before a spasm of coughs shook his body. When he was finished, his head turned towards Zach.

"What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that. It looks like we're on some kind of an island. There's a pretty big citadel in the center. Oh, and did I mention the floating rocks?" Zach gestured towards large chunks of land floating in the sky."

"Floating rocks?" Spyro looked at Zach questioningly before his eyes opened in surprise. "It can't be…."

Shooting to his feet, Spyro gazed up at their surroundings. "Zach… this is the white Isle… We're here."

"Alright…" Zach looked strangely at Spyro. "And that is significant because?"

"Zach, that's the chronicler's temple." Spyro spoke with excitement in his voice.

"Ok, that great, but how did we get here? The last thing I remember is fighting those wyverns and chasing you down into the water after Cynder called out after you."

"Cynder!" Spyro quickly turned back toward the water, slight panic in his voice.

Zach grabbed Spyro's tail with his own. "Spyro, there's nothing we can do now. We don't know where she is or how long we've been unconscious. The fight is probably over by now. We just have to trust that she can handle herself."

Spyro stopped moving, but he still pulled against Zach.

"I'm sure she's fine. But we have things to take care of as well. Lets do what we came here to do."

Spyro took one last look over his shoulder before turning and walking inland with Zach. "Come on, I don't know how much time we're going to have here."

"Lead the way; I don't know where to go anyway."

Spyro quickly walked up the sandy beach toward the large temple, his pace quick enough that Zach had trot to keep up.

"You seem anxious." Zach commented as he strode alongside Spyro.

"It's not that… it's just… I want to see the chronicler again, but I need to make sure Cynder is alright, and the only way I can do that is to get out of here."

"Hmm…" Zach only nodded as they continued walking. He had hoped this would be a happy reunion for Spyro, but it seemed like it would be overshadowed by the uncertainty of what happened to Cynder.

"You seem distracted too." Spyro glanced over at Zach as they approached a large stone door.

"You're not the only one with a lot on their minds right now." Zach muttered back as he looked up at the massive stone gate in front of them. "What now?"

No sooner than Zach finished, the stone doors opened without the slightest bit of sound.

Spyro smiled over at Zach. "Now, we go in."

Zach followed Zach into the large temple. Dimly lit passageways seemed to snake into a maze of different rooms, but Spyro seemed to know where he was going. After snaking though the hallways for a few minutes, Spyro stopped in front of an open doorway.

"I didn't think I would ever come back here…" Spyro stood looking into a large circular room; a large hourglass took up the center off the expanse while different tables and bookshelves lined the floor and walls.

"I was beginning to think we'd never make it here…" Zach walked into the room slowly behind Spyro.

Spyro shot a questioning look over his shoulder but continued walking. Stopping in the middle of the room, Spyro looked around. "Chronicler? Are you in here?"

A voice drifted into the room from behind the two dragons "Ah, I see you both made it here unharmed. Zach it is good to see you and Spyro…"

Both young dragons turned around, Spyro went slack jawed and Zach held a smug smile on his face.

"Ig… Ig…"

"It is good to see you again. It could be under better circumstances, but I couldn't be prouder of you." Ignitus stood proudly in front of the two dragons, a broad smile on his face.

"But how?" Spyro broke into a large grin as well.

"You have started a new age Spyro, and as such, a new chronicler must be appointed. I have been chosen for this task, and I have been watching this world ever since."

Spyro tuned to Zach, a rather large grin still on his face. "So that's what you were hiding from me. Things make a little more sense now."

"Well, Cynder knew at the very end, which is part of the reason I think she wanted to come with us."

Spyro smiled, though it was only half hearted. "I hope she's ok."

"Spyro, if anyone can get through that, you know it's Cynder. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Ignitus looked at them with a guilty look on his face. "Forgive me if I called you here at a bad time, I didn't know your situation, or that Cynder was with you."

"We ran into some wyverns on the way here, and I can't say that they were too friendly. Spyro here passed out in the middle of the fight."

"Wyverns? They haven't been seen around the valley of Avalar for hundreds of years."

"Are they always so hostile? They seemed to have been looking for us." Spyro asked

"No. Their social structure has always been different than ours, but they have never been openly hostile towards dragons. I have a feeling that something must have happened. I will look more into the matter, but that is something for a different time. This should be a somewhat happy reunion."

"Not to be rude Ignitus, but why didn't you try and tell us earlier?" Spyro looked over at the former guardian. "We missed you."

"The answer is somewhat complicated, and even I do not know the entire answer." Ignitus turned and picked a leather bound book off one of the nearby tables. "But what I do know, is centered around what I don't know about Zach."

"That doesn't sound familiar or anything…" Spyro looked over at Zach.

"Hey, if I'm lucky, you won't ever have to deal with me again after this."

"If you are lucky indeed," Ignitus walked over and handed the leather bound book to Zach. "This is your book Zach, and even with what little I know about the chronicles of this world, I know that your book is a rare case, for I cannot see what is inside it."

Zach held the book absent mindedly in his talons. "And that's unusual?"

"Very… I believe that if you can help me answer some of my questions, I can help you solve some of yours."

"Alright, what do you need me to do?" Zach handed the book back to the former guardian.

"Spyro, if you would excuse us for a moment. A person's book is something only they should see."

Spyro nodded in response.

"Alright then. Zach, if you would follow me." Ignitus turned and walked into a side room, Zach was quick to follow. They entered what seemed to be a small study.

A few small torches along the walls illuminated the room, casting a warm glow over the few objects inside. Cushions lay scattered over the floor, taking up most of the floor space in the small room. The rest of the room consisted of a small desk and bookshelf with a few books scattered between them.

Sitting down on one of the large cushions, Ignitus gestured for Zach to do the same. Once he had settled down, Ignitus set the book on the ground in front of Zach.

"This book is yours, Zach. And I have not been able to gain much information from it. You may go ahead and take a look at it. To say the least it is not like any of the other books here."

Zach looked at the book hesitantly before using a talon to open its hard leather cover. The first page had his name written in large, scrawling cursive, giving some proof that this was in fact his book, but there was a large amount of white space below his name, making him wonder if there was supposed to be more information on the page.

Turning the page, Zach could see a smaller version of the same cursive detailing information about his life. Reading it over, Zach could see his age, coloration, and various other details, but he couldn't help but think the information was incomplete again.

Turning the page again, Zach was met with a completely blank page. Confused, Zach turned the page again. Once again the page was completely white. Grabbing a large section of pages, Zach quickly turned through them only to see them all completely white. Leaving the book open, Zach looked up at Ignitus.

"As you have noticed, your book is very unique. The cover of you book does not reflect the color of your scales like most, and much information is missing from its pages. There is a little information on recent events, but not enough to know much. I called you here because of how I found your book. With most dragons, their book appears in a separate wing of this building when they are conceived. Generally their book has few pages in it, and the books grow as the dragons do. What was unusual is that I found your book amongst the new arrivals one day. Unlike the other, it already had many pages in it, and your age meant that your book should have appeared some time ago.

Curious, I began to read it, and I found it much like you have now. It was also about the same time your book appeared that other books began to have similar gaps. I could no longer see any information in Spyro's, Cynder's or any of my fellow guardians' books. And the list grew as time went on. Figuring your book must have something to do with it, I contacted you, and after talking to you, I was sure I was correct."

Ignitus let out a heavy sigh as he looked down at Zach's book. "I do not know what is going on with you, young dragon, but it is something I could have never imagined, and I can only guess that unprecedented things are in store for you. Something over my power is working in your affairs."

Zach let out a heavy sigh," I'm guessing that means you don't know how to get me home then…"

Ignitus looked over at Zach, "the nature of your question makes me think there is more to your story then you are telling me, but before we get into that, there is one thing that may help us."

Ignitus passed his hand over Zach's book. As he did, a line of scribbled cursive appeared in Zach's book in the center of both open pages. Flipping the pages, Zach could see the same thing written on all of the other blank pages.

"What is it?"

"A riddle." Ignitus recited aloud as Zach read along in the book. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?"

"I have tried every creature I could think of, even trying the more abstract answers, but either I have never found the correct answer, or I am doing it wrong." Ignitus looked down to see Zach starring intently at his book. "Zach?"

Zach let out a heavy sigh. "It one of the oldest riddles in history. Human history that is, and that actually the answer. Human or sometimes just man depending on the version. He walks on four legs when he is a baby and crawls along the ground, two legs when he is middle age and walks upright and three legs when he is old and needs a cane. The times of day correspond with the ages of the man."

"I have never heard of this creature."

Zach almost laughed. "I wouldn't think so. To say the very least, I'm not from around here."

Ignitus narrowed his eyes. "And where, young dragon, are you from?"

Zach broke eye contact and looked down at the ground. "It's a long story…" looking back at the book, Zach could see script like writing beginning to appear on the pages of his book. "But maybe you should just read it. I think it would be easier that way."

Picking up the book, Ignitus' eyes widened as he saw script beginning to fill the pages of Zach's book. "By the ancestors…"

Ignitus quickly flipped through the pages, absorbing information faster than Zach thoughts possible. After reaching the end of the book, Ignitus sat silently on his haunches, contemplating what he had read while Zach waited anxiously beside him.

After a few minutes, Ignitus began to speak slowly. "So, that is you story Zach? I can honestly say that I have never heard of anything like this." Standing up, Ignitus moved so he could look Zach in the eyes. "Do not be ashamed of what you are, or what you have become. You are here for a reason, and while I cannot see where your adventure will take you, I am sure that you will be able to make it through in the end."

"So you're saying you have no idea how to get me home?" Zach looked up at Ignitus with a forlorn look on his face.

"I'm sorry Zach, but even with what you did, there are still some things that are hidden from me. I cannot tell where your journey will take you from here on out, but I can tell you that you have friends that will support you on your journey."

Zach smiled half-heartedly, "you obviously didn't see things the same way I did."

"Zach, Malefor's evil knew no bounds. Anything he created was created ultimately to destroy. Any of his creations were nothing but darkness, a darkness that corrupts the soul. It is not you fault that you were subjected to it, and no one can empathize with you better than Spyro and Cynder. They know what it is like better than anyone. And if I'm not mistaken, they have both already forgiven you for it."

"Yeah… it just doesn't feel like it sometimes."

"While forgiveness may be easy to give, trust is something that takes much longer to recover. Just give it some time."

"It seems like I'm going to have plenty of time in the future now anyway." Zach let out a heavy sigh.

"Do not give up hope Zach, I am sure there is a way to get you home, and I do not believe that it was coincidence that you ended up with Spyro."

"Yeah…" Zach drifted off.

"Shall we go rejoin the young dragon?

"There isn't much more I can do here anyways, but Ignitus, if you find out anything about how to get me home…"

Ignitus smiled at the young dragon. "I will attempt to contact you as soon as I can."

Zach smiled back "thanks."

Walking out of the study, both dragons found Spyro curled up resting on the floor.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Zach looked over at Spyro, a seemingly lost expression on his face. "No…"

Spyro's face fell as well. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't worry about it. It's not really your problem." Zach let out a heavy sigh as he sat on his haunches.

"Well… seeing as you'll be hanging around with us a while longer, I think it kind of is." Spyro laughed as he looked over at the white dragon.

Zach looked back at Spyro. "I figured I'd get out of you way since this is over."

"Where would you go Zach?"

Zach remained silent.

"That's what I thought. Come on, you're as much part of the temple as we all are now, and besides. I need your help to go find Cynder."

Zach gave Spyro a weak smile before standing to his feet again. "I suppose you're right. Someone has to keep you both alive anyway."

"Ha!" Spyro smiled before turning over to Ignitus. "It's good to see you again Ignitus, I'm glad you're ok. I really wish I could stay longer. But we need to go find Cynder."

"I understand. I wish I could help more, but even with unlocking Zach's book, I still cannot see into either yours or Cynder's." Ignitus let out a small sigh. "Just come see an old dragon every once in a while will you?"

"I will, and I'm sure the other guardians will be happy to hear you're ok as well."

"Actually…" Zach tried to suppress a smile as he looked over at Spyro. "They kind of know already."

"Why am I the last one to be told about these things?"

"I'll explain on the way, it's a long story."

"Everything is a long story with you Zach." Spyro rolled his eyes.

"I know, that's why I'm going to explain on the way. You ready to go?"

Spyro stood to his feet. "Yeah, let's get going. Goodbye Ignitus."

"Goodbye Spyro. I wish this meeting could have been longer." Ignitus smiled as the two dragons walked toward the door.

"I do too. Alright Zach, let's go."

Ignitus smiled again as the two dragons left. "May the ancestors watch over you." Ignitus watched the two dragons leave with a small amount of pride. They would do well together, even if they didn't always see eye to eye. If had any chance of getting home, it was with Spyro.

Zach followed Spyro back to the sandy beach that they had woken up on. "Uh…. So what now?"

"Now we go find Cynder." Spyro gazed out over the water with a determined look on his face.

"Well I figured that, but how do we get off this island?"

Spyro stared blankly at Zach. "We're dragons… we have wings... we can fly…"

"Right." Zach shuffled his body and prepared to take flight. "I just thought it would be more difficult to make it off of this island..."

"Hopefully not." Without another word, Spyro took flight, soaring high above the island.

"Hopefully?" Zach called after Spyro before following him into the air. Once he and Spyro rejoined, Spyro pointed himself toward the direction they had washed onto the beach and flew out over the ocean.

It wasn't long before Zach began to feel the fatigue of flying again. After flying all morning and getting washed up on a beach, his body was still a little sore. But as he continued flying, his wings began to feel heavier and heavier, all in a short amount of time. By the time they had covered a few hundred yards out over the ocean, Zach could barely keep his eyes open. Something wasn't natural.

Looking over at Spyro, Zach could see he was fighting the same feeling, his wings beating in irregular patterns.

As darkness once again claimed his vision, Zach felt his wings falter, sending him spiraling toward the water below.

"Well this is odd, I thought I left Zach's book out in the other room…" Ignitus mentally called to a leather bound book in his central chamber, causing it to float in the air next to him. "I think I'm going to keep you in a better place. Your story is going to play a significant part in the coming future."

Zach opened his eyes to a sight he never expected to see. Incredible architecture covered an expansive stone floor he was laying on, but the normality of the situation stopped there. The stone floor he was lying on seemed to float in a vast expanse of space. Large planets loomed in the distance, close enough that he could pick out minute details of their surface while stars shone brightly in the blank expanses of space. A purple haze seemed to permeate everything around him while it created a nebula effect out in space.

"Why does everything have to float?" Zach spoke to no one in particular as he stared off into the vast expanse of space in front of him.

"Well how else would you suggest holding it here?" Zach turned around at the sound of another voice. What he saw shocked him. Standing in front of him were multiple glowing dragons. Each seemed to glow with a white spectral power, but he could clearly define the attribute of each dragon standing in front of him

"What… who… who are you?"

"Always with the questions Zach…" The figure in front of Zach shrugged. "Who we are is not important, what is important is what we do, and what we know. We know more about you than you know yourself. You have questions, and we have answers."

Zach stood with his mouth open for a few moments before regaining composure. "How… how do you know who I am?"

The large figure in the middle of the circle smiled, although Zach couldn't hear a change in his voice. "I know a lot of things Zach. You are a unique individual. To start, you are not actually a dragon, you don't belong in the world you're in, and the thing you want most right now is to go home."

Zach rubbed his talons across his horns. "I don't know why I'm surprised at this… so, you're some kind of chronicler then?" The number of people who knew things about him without his knowledge was growing steadily.

"No we are not. While the chronicler oversees his specific world and maintains records, we are responsible for maintaining balance between both worlds. We are the ancestors of this realm."

"Both worlds?" Zach was now very interested.

"I will try to answer most of your questions at once. We serve as a mediator between the two worlds. While each realm's chronicler simply works to record the history of the creatures on that world, we are in charge of how the two worlds interact with each other. My job is to use my minimal abilities to maintain the balance of both worlds. While I may influence some events directly, most of my time is spent giving advice to people like you. Before you ask, No, I am not responsible or in control transferring beings across the astral plane. However, I can tell you how to get home."

"Where were you for the past few weeks? You know, when I first got here!" Zach growled at the dragon even though he was anxious to hear how to get home.

"It's not that simple, there are some physical limitations to what we can do. We can only come into contact with you when you are in a place with a strong connection to this central world." The dragon gestured to their surroundings with his wings.

"Where are we anyway?" Zach once again gazed at the splendor of the world around him.

"The dragons call this the realm of convexity. You humans would call it another universe, subspace, or something else along those lines. Each name is accurate and incorrect in one fashion or another, but perhaps that is a talk for another time? I'm sure you would be more interested in how you are to get home. That is, after all, why I bothered to bring you here."

"Alright then, how do I get home?" Zach sat down.

The dragon turned and looked off into the black expanse around them. "That is the question isn't it? But it's one I'm sure you won't like the answer to.

Zach paused for a moment. "Is it possible?"

"Oh it is very possible." The ancestors turned their backs to Zach. "The structure of this universe is quite interesting, and very complex, but I will try to make it simple for you."

One of the dragons waved a hand in front of him, the space transforming into a myriad of different colors. They narrated as the shapes formed and changed in the space in front of him. "Imagine both your world and Spyro's as two different spheres on a plane." One red and one blue sphere appeared in front of Zach, both orbs slowly orbiting each other. "Your planets essentially orbit each other on a unique astral plane. The dragons call that plane the realm of convexity. We are currently standing within that realm." A purple plane appeared connecting the two orbiting orbs. "This plane serves as a connection between both worlds. It creates a basis to keep both of them in balance with each other. On each of the two worlds, there is a certain person who serves as a bridge. They serve as the connection between their world, this realm, and the world opposite them." A thick tendril of light appeared between the two orbs, twisting and pulsing as the orbs orbited each other.

"Although the actual process is more complex, you could imagine that both your world and Spyro's have an attraction to each other. This attraction ebbs and flows, but if left unchecked, would ultimately cause the end of both worlds." As he spoke, the blue orb slowed its orbit until it doubled back into the red orb. Both disappeared in a spiral of colored energy.

"The bridges I spoke of counteract that attraction. It is the universe's way of maintaining balance. The two bridges repel each other, and while they don't maintain a perfect balance, they keep the worlds on relatively opposite sides of the astral plane."

Zach shook his head, trying to make sense of the illustration. "Ok, so they keep the two worlds in balance, but what does that have to do with me getting home?"

The dragon smiled, waving his hand to recreate the image in front of him. "The bridges are the only things in the universe that have a connection with both their world, the astral plane, and the world opposite them. As such, they are involved whenever anything must go between the two worlds."

"So are you saying I went through these bridges to get here?" Zach stepped closer to the floating illustration while giving the ancestors a questioning look.

They scowled down at Zach, "if you would let me finish… the bridges on both worlds actually serve more as anchors. Both worlds must be directly opposite each other on the astral plane in order for anything to travel between the two." A long tube appeared in between the two worlds; Zach assumed it was representing the bridge.

"What would happen if someone tried to make a jump to a world without the worlds being directly across from each other?"

"Because the worlds are always connected by the anchors on each world and the singular anchor in the center of this plane, the bridge between them flexes and bends as the worlds sift positions." Zach watched as the tube illustration bent and twisted as the two worlds shifted positions.

"If they're always connected, why couldn't you make the jump at any time?"

The dragons speaking let out a frustrated sigh. "If you would stop interrupting me, I would explain."

Zach nodded sheepishly, "sorry."

"Anyway, even though the bridge is in a way 'flexible,' the process in which a person transfers from one world to the other must travel in a straight line. If someone would attempt to make a jump without the bridge being perfectly strait, they would crash through the boundaries of the bridge, and they would be forever lost." The dragon stopped, letting that part of the conversation trail off.

After a long pause, he began again. "The actual transference of something between the two worlds is done though certain points on the planet." The image in front of Zach grew; pinpricks of white light appearing at various points across both the worlds. "These points have a strong connection to this astral plane. If enough energy is concentrated in any of these points, a bridge will open between the two worlds and anything can travel across them."

"How much energy are we talking about here?"

"More than you can imagine. There is only one case of someone from one of the worlds creating enough energy to successfully create a bridge, and that case is what brought you here."

"Let me guess… Spyro?"

The ancestors nodded. "Yes, but I doubt he will be able to do it again."

Zach sat heavily onto his haunches "so is that it? Is there no way for me to get home then?"

"On the contrary," the dragon stepped through the illusion in front of him, dissipating it. "While the inhabitants of both your world and the other cannot comprehend the creation of such energy, harnessing that amount of energy in this plane is commonplace." Moving his arm behind him, the dragon collected the wisps of energy still in the air from his illusion. Bringing his arm back into view, he presented an orb of energy to Zach.

Zach reached out and took the orb of energy from the dragon. As it came into contact with his scales, the orb solidified into a wafer thin white stone suspended by a metal chain. As Zach looked at it, the white stone seemed to pulse with energy.

"Really? A necklace?" Zach looked up at the ancestors questioningly.

"I do not care how you carry it, but you must always keep it with you. As long as you do not take it off yourself, it will never fall off, and it cannot be taken from you. Call it a perk of being from the astral plane."

"Really?" Zach looked at the odd chain before wrapping it around his upper shoulder, the white stone pressed smoothly against his arm. Securing it tightly, Zach looked back at the ancestors. "I never was one for necklaces… you're sure this won't fall off?"

"Absolutely. And as an added bonus, anyone not from your world will not be able to see it. I figured your task would be easier if you can keep up this facade you have going."

"Task? What task?" Zach took a step back and snarled at the ancestors. "I can't say I like where this is going."

The dragon speaking let out a heavy sigh, though he seemed more irritated than upset. "This will require more explanation."

"I'm listening." Zach was far past frustrated with his mysterious friends.

"Essentially, when Spyro rebuilt his world, he temporarily altered reality. While his desire was to pull his world back together, the immense energy he concentrated activated the bridge. However, instead of the natural occurrence of the bridge transferring the individuals who activated the bridge, Spyro's will to draw his world back together… reversed… the process of the bridge. Instead of sending the bridge form his world and an individual with a strong connection to the astral realm to your world, it brought individuals with the same characteristics from your world there."

"Are you saying…?" Zach cocked his head, hope creeping into his voice.

"You were not the only one drawn through the bridge Zach."

"So there is someone else here?" Zach was now excited. Simply knowing someone shared his experiences put him slightly at ease.

"It's much more complex than that. If it were merely someone else, we would not have the problem we do now. The unique situation Spyro was in when he activated the bridge did not just pull you into this realm; it pulled the individual serving as the bridge from your world as well. When he did, the bridge collapsed on itself. That's why you did not end up at the location the bridge was formed. You actual exit point was very dangerous actually. We intervened to keep any real harm from coming to you."

Zach raised an eyebrow. "You mean that crater?"

"That and much more actually." The ancestors stared down at Zach. "You don't think that beings naturally change form when they transfer across a bridge do you? And I'm sure you've noticed how unique your abilities are, even with the crowd you seem to be hanging out with."

Zach snorted. "You're saying that you did that? Wow, for all the things you can do, you can't seem to do the things that are the most important."

The ancestors seemed unaffected by Zach's comment. "It's all explanations with you isn't it? I could spend hours explaining the realities and physics of the universe, not that you would understand much of it, but we both know you don't have the time right now…"

"Alright, we can put together just what you did to me later, but what happened with this other bridge?"

The dragon speaking turned away from Zach. "That is unimportant."

Zach rolled his eyes. "Well then what is important? Why would you go through all the trouble of helping me and then bringing me here? What 'task' did you plan on having me do?"

"I stated earlier how the bridges keep the two worlds in balance. When the bridge from your world was pulled into this one, it destroyed the balance between the worlds. While this poses no immediate threat, if left uncheck it will lead to the destruction of both worlds."

Zach looked hard down at the ground. "So why don't you just send the bridge back?

"You don't pay very much attention to me when I'm talking, do you?" The dragon looked down at Zach without a speck of amusement. "Without a bridge anchor on each planet, forming the bridge is impossible. Not to mention that without the bridges, the planets will never be directly across from each other again."

Zach looked back up at the ancestors. They didn't seem too concerned with the situation. "So what are you going to do?"

"It's not so much what I'm going to do, but what you're going to do." The dragon speaking turned to look at Zach. "The solution is quite simple really. In order to restore balance to the two worlds, one of the bridges must be destroyed."

Zach shook his head in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"I do not determine the rules of the universe, I only observe them."

"Do you honestly expect me to do your dirty work?"

The dragon let out a long sigh, obviously irritated with Zach's morality. "If I could do this myself, I would, but I can't. That's why I provided you with the things I did. It gives you the perfect opportunity to eliminate one of the bridges and restore balance without causing too much commotion. You are the unfortunate result of a series of cosmic events. You do not belong here, and if the bridge hadn't pulled you here, you would never know of any of this. I know what you are feeling, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. One life is not worth the fate of two worlds."

"I am not killing anyone!" Zach roared in defiance, his voice echoing off the surrounding void.

"You do not have a choice!" The ancestor's voice rose slightly. "If you ever want to return to your own world, you must follow through with this. And even if you somehow resign yourself to staying on this world, the imbalance between the two worlds would ultimately cause their destruction. This is not up for debate. Circumstances have forced this responsibility upon you, and there is nothing you can do to shirk that responsibility."

"How will killing someone help?" Zach growled through clenched teeth.

"When a bridge dies on either of the planets, regardless of cause, a new bridge is chosen on that planet. It is generally someone with a strong natural connection to the astral plane, and it is someone early in their life span. If one of the bridge anchors is destroyed on this planet, the connection will naturally be reestablished on the world in need of one."

"So you're saying it doesn't matter which bridge…"

"No. It doesn't matter…"

Zach stayed silent for a while. He had almost been relieved to have someone in the same situation, but after hearing what the ancestors were asking… what they were expecting of him. It was if his bad dream was only getting worse. The only way he could fathom doing what they were asking him would be if one of the bridges was one of the people he already was determined to rip to shreds… One deranged ape in particular.

"Even if I would do anything like what you're suggesting, who are we talking about? Who are the two bridges?"

"It's part of the reason I'm talking to you now. You actually know one of the bridges already."

Zach was hesitant to ask… "Who?"

The ancestors stared at Zach with completely impassive faces. "You believe it to be Spyro don't you?"

Zach nodded. "You can't honestly think that I am going to do anything to him. Not after all that he's been through."

They shook their heads, keeping their voices at what Zach could only assume to be the usual monotone. "Relax; Spyro is not his world's bridge."

"Who then?" Zach's tense muscles relaxed a little, although he was for from calm.

"Someone who has had a strong connection with this realm since her birth. Her multiple excursions into this realm have made her a strong bridge across worlds."

"No…" Zach shook his head. Out of anyone it could have been, fate seemed to be cruelest to her.

"Cynder."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Fate

Zach growled at the figure in front of him. "No. I don't care what you're telling me. There is no way you could ever get me to do that."

The ancestor in front of Zach let out a frustrated sigh. "We know that it is not the most ideal of situations. But it is the only way to bring balance back to both the worlds."

"What about the other bridge? I thought you said that this problem was from both of the bridges being on the same world. Why can't they be the one to 'make the sacrifice?'?" Zach was doing little to hide his frustration.

"They very well could, but we will not tell you who this person is or where they are."

Zach's anger only grew, "why the hell not?"

Once again the ancestor let out a sigh in what Zach could only guess to be a condescending manner. "It is unimportant."

"How is that unimportant? You just told me that it didn't matter which bridge was severed. Why can't it be the one that was dragged here on accident? Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"It would be far too complicated….

"Enough with this it's too complicated crap!" Zach yelled to interrupt them. All the dragons around him became silent. "You have the nerve to drag me here and ask me to kill someone with nothing more than a shady explanation and vague answers? I'm not going to do anything until I figure out exactly who you are and why this is happening. So you'd better start explaining, or we're going to be here a while." Zach took a breath and waited a moment. "Why don't you start with why you seem so intent on having me kill one of my friends and the person that helped save this miserable world?"

The lead dragon looked at his companions before turning back to Zach. "Very well. You might as well sit down again."

Zach sat down cautiously while staring down the large dragon. "Alright, explain."

"Now I will try to make this as short as I can so you may understand it. With the power we have, we possess a knowledge that surpasses the chronicler when it comes to the people and events on both worlds; however, there is one thing that is hidden from even the most knowledgeable beings, and that is the identity of both of the bridges. It is the universes way of protecting itself from harm. This is why we do not know the identity or location of the other bridge you seek."

Zach broke in, "and yet you telling me that even though you're not supposed to know the identity of either of the bridges, that you just happen to know that Cynder is one?"

The ancestor in front of Zach snorted, "It was a simple matter of deduction. The connection on Spyro's side of the world emanated from the core of the earth. There were only three dragons there, and with the purple dragons being incapable of being the bridge, that left only one remaining option. Besides, with Cynder's former exposure to this realm at an early age, it made her an ideal candidate for becoming a bridge."

"Alright, I won't even ask about why it can't be a purple dragon, but you still haven't given me a reason to trust you. Everyone can give convincing reasons to a person who knows nothing about what you're talking about."

This time the ancestor spoke with distaste. "What is it with your kind that makes them so opposed to having a little belief in the unknown?"

"Oh I don't know…" Zach rolled his eyes. "Maybe it's because the first time we meet one of them they ask us to kill one of our best friends!"

"You wish to be sure of who we are?" This time, agitation seeped into the ancestor's voice as he spoke. "Very well, we will show you, but you may not like what you see."

Reaching out with one of its glowing talons, the ancestor in front of Zach placed it on Zach's forehead. A burst of energy raced into Zach, and for a moment, his vision went blank and Zach felt that he may have gone blind. After a moment, the darkness gave way to wave after wave of images and feeling. They flitted through Zach's mind with such intensity that he almost couldn't keep track of all of them.

It was at if he was looking at the ramifications of every action he had ever made. Some came in fleeting glances, while others bore into him with such intensity that he physically recoiled at the memories. The ancestor quickly broke away, but even with the brief contact, it was more than enough for Zach.

Zach gasped as the ancestor broke contact and stepped away, letting his head sag toward the ground as the larger dragon spoke.

"We are who we say to be Zach, and we are not the malevolent force you make us out to be either. We are displeased with this solution as well, but there is no other solution. You will see it as we do eventually, and you must carry out your task, as distasteful as it is.

Zach picked himself off the ground and growled. "You're wrong. I don't care what you say, but there is another way to do this."

The ancestor in front of Zach let out another sigh. "We can see that we will not get any farther in this discussion today. You may believe what you want Zach, but deep in your heart, you know what we say is true. We shall return you to your physical body now, but know that this will not be the last time we talk. You have a task set before you that you must carry out. We will be in touch."

As the dragon spoke, the ring of dragons standing around Zach faded away one by one until the one who was speaking finally faded from existence. The moment he did, the world around Zach began to blur and darken, eventually plunging Zach back into absolute darkness.

Comet walked through the forest around the temple at a brisk pace. After the extended trials the day before against Spyro, Cynder, and Zach, the guardians had given him and the other candidates the day off to rest, recuperate, and explore.

And exploring was exactly what he was doing.

Ever since he had arrived he had wanted to wander the vast expanse of forest surrounding the temple, but their training had prevented him from doing so, and he was so busy during the few times they trained outdoor he hadn't had the chance to truly explore them.

Now, after a good night's sleep and lazing around for most of the day, he finally found the time to go out and truly explore the land. He had started in the forests and gardens surrounding the temple, but after quickly winding his way through the maze of gardens, he found himself longing for the vast untamed expanse of the forests farther away from the temple.

Thus, he was currently wandering down a partially worn trail a few miles from the temple. He had asked some of the other candidates if they wanted to accompany him, but they all seemed preoccupied or uninterested. He had thought Chara would have wanted to come with him for sure, she had previously expressed a similar want to explore the surrounding area, but she seemed distracted and claimed she had other things to do today. He knew she was acting odd, but every former experience he ever had with females told him to leave her alone for a while.

It didn't bother him that much though, he enjoyed the alone time. Taking in a deep breath through is nose; Comet once again took in the scent of the forest. It was very similar to the one around his own village and just being out in the woods again reminded him of home.

Finding a clearing in the forest, Comet laid down in the tall soft grass. He could just see the top of temple in the distance, but it was no more than a silhouette against the backdrop of the sky. Resting his head on his arms, Comet let his eyes close and his mind wander.

A loud rustle in the trees behind him disturbed his rest and made Comet turn around

"Huh?" The forest was still aside from the gentle breeze drifting through the trees, and the ground was clear of brush for yards.

Another rustle off to his left caught Comet's attention, though this one was farther away.

"Guys?" Peering up into the trees, Comet spotted some leaves moving deeper into the forest. "Or maybe not…" Crouching down, Comet began stalking into the woods. There was something unusual happening in the forest. And he was going to find out what.

Taking a heading from the rustle in the trees, Comet crawled slowly into the woods. Nothing in the woods seemed odd; birds still flitted from tree to tree, deer grazed in a nearby clearing, and he even stumbled upon a few rabbits as they searched for food. Nothing pointed toward something being off in the area, but something in his gut told Comet that he something wasn't quite right either.

Foot after foot, Comet crawled deeper into the woods, and with each step, the feeling in his stomach grew worse. Regular sounds of nature began to fade into the distance, and small changes in the forest began to set him on edge. Deer trials seemed slightly larger than they should, branches seemed to be broken at odd angles, and the faint smell of smoke was in the air.

Something was definitely wrong in the forest. He could go back to the temple and tell the guardians, but he really didn't want to drag everyone out here for a false alarm. Then again, his instincts hadn't ever steered him wrong before, and while he may be overacting to nothing, it would be far better than letting something lurk in the woods this close to the temple.

Standing up from his crouch, Comet unfurled his wings and looked for an opening in the canopy of trees above him.

"Look what we have here…"

Comet's head snapped around.

Behind him stood two rather large apes. One was dressed in leather armor and had its sword drawn, while the other was dressed in weathered metal armor and had his hands on his hips. Both seemed none too happy to find a dragon and wore scowls across their faces.

"Looks like someone has wandered too far from the nest…" The one with the blade in its hand took a step toward Comet. Comet growled and took a step back in response.

"Ah… don't do anything stupid now, or you will make this a lot more painful than it needs to be." The ape in metal armor shook his head as the other one approached.

"Who said this had to be painful at all?" Comet quipped back as he spotted an opening in the canopy above him. He definitely needed to get back to the temple.

Comet jumped into the air, his wings quickly moving him out of range of the ape below him, but as Comet climbed into the trees, he felt a heavy weight slam into his back. The sudden weight collapsed his wings and drove him back into the ground, forcing him to land hard on his side.

Comet scrambled to get to his feet, but someone yanked his head to the side by his horns, throwing him to the ground. Any further attempt at escape was thwarted as he felt a heavy body pin him to the ground.

"Now then, we can't have you getting away and warning your friends now can we?" A rather large ape grunted from Comet's back as he thrashed on the ground. Seconds later, Comet's vision flashed as something clubbed the back of his head.

"That's better."

"What do we do now?" Comet could barely see two other apes talking on the edge of his vision.

"You know what our orders were. There's nothing else we can do."

"Should I get the others ready then?"

"Yes, you idiot. It won't be long until they notice this one is gone. We actually might live through this with the element of surprise."

"We won't be able to attack until tomorrow. It will take time to prepare and move to the temple."

The larger ape let out an irritated growl. "Just get it done, and don't let me catch anyone slacking off, or they won't even have to worry about the dragons."

"Yes Sir." The smaller ape broke away from the small group and disappeared into the bushes.

Comet heard the ape on top of him speak again. "What do you want me to do with this one?"

"What do you think?" The ape in charge strode over to Comet and cast him a disgusted glance before walking after the other ape.

"Kill him."

Zach woke up feeling cold.

Unconsciously curling into a ball, Zach tried to maintain what body heat he had left. His scales were numb, and as much as he wanted to, he could not get any part of his body to respond to his commands.

Letting out a low moan, Zach cracked open his eyes only to squeeze them shut again as he was blinded by bright light.

Groaning again, Zach forced enough feeling into his arm to pull it over his head, dampening the blinding light.

"Well good morning sunshine." A voice from over his shoulder caused Zach to flop his head to the side and crack open his eyes. Spyro was lying behind him, wrapped around an unconscious Cynder with a mixture of worry and relief. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

Finally regaining slight feelings in his numb limbs, Zach pushed himself onto his stomach and looked around.

They were all cramped into a small, moist, stone cave, probably caved out by exposure to the weather. He was closest to the mouth of the cave while Spyro and Cynder were pressed against the wall behind him. At the front of the cave, a small fire blazed, giving much needed, if insubstantial, warmth to the room. At first, Zach thought the cave was set up into the air, as all he could see was a wall of white outside the cave, but on further inspection, he could see the swarm of snow particles that composed a blizzard raging outside.

Zach shifted uncomfortably. He couldn't so much as twitch his tail without running into a wall or another dragon. In fact, he was currently pressed up against Cynder's body. Shockingly, she felt even colder than he did

Concerned, Zach turned back around to face Spyro. "Do you know what happened?"

"Not really. When I woke up, she was just dragging you out of the water. She collapsed soon after, so brought you up here and did what I could. It wasn't exactly the most elegant plan, but the storm was already raging. This is the best spot I could find."

Zach let out an anxious sigh and placed on of his claws on Cynder's chilled body, feeling the tremors that wracked her body. "If I know her, she was probably out fighting the storm trying to find us. It was a dumb thing to do, but it was probably for the best."

"Is she going to be alright?" The worry was evident in Spyro's voice.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I think she'll be alright. Hopefully it's just a little bit of exposure and not hypothermia. Just keep her warm and she should be fine."

"Alright." Zach smiled as Spyro wrapped his body tighter around Cynder, draping his wing over her and setting his head next to hers.

"So what now? We're obviously not going anywhere anytime soon, but once this storm dies down… what then?"

"I don't know" Spyro spoke softly. "This storm will pass soon enough, and Cynder and I will probably head back to the temple, but I suppose the real question is what will you do?" Spyro looked over to Zach "I'm sorry you didn't get the answers you were looking for."

Zach turned his head away from Spyro and Cynder. If only that were the case… "Yeah…"

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not really. I guess I was counting on this working. Now that things have changed, I don't really know what I'll do."

"You could always come back to the temple with us. I'm sure the Guardians would be happy to let you stay. At the very least they might be able to set you in the right direction. Besides, I think Cynder has enjoyed having you around..."

Zach smirked half-heartedly back at Spyro. "Cynder huh?"

"Alright, I'll admit, it would be different not having you around… But seriously, what are you going to do?"

Sighing again, Zach stared out into the blizzard. "I really don't know. I have a lot on my mind, and a lot of decisions to make."

"Well you'll have a lot of time to think about it before we head back. I doubt Cynder will wake up until tomorrow, so you will probably want to catch some sleep. And whatever you decide, Cynder and I will be right by your side." With that, Spyro closed his eyes and let the conversation drift off.

Zach stared out into the howling blizzard for a while longer, the forceful wind sending eerie echoes into their small cave. "That's what I'm afraid of…"

Cynder was the first one to stir the next morning. Opening her eyes, she was pleasantly surprised to find Spyro wrapped around her, although she had no recollection as to how she ended up here. Moving her head back closer to Spyro, Cynder was content to rest in comfort as she tried to sort through her memories. She couldn't piece together much of the fight after Spyro hit the water. All she could remember were high pitched shrieks and jets of fire until the last wyvern hit the water below. It hadn't been easy to fight them all at once, but two were injured, and she did have experience fighting against multiple foes.

Still, it was terrifying when she couldn't find any trace of Spyro or Zach in the water. She had spent hours pushing herself to scan the waters, but the approaching storm had forced her to the ground on Dante's freezer. Thank the ancestors that she found them when she did, but even then, all she could remember after that was pulling Spyro out of the water. One of them must have woken up and found the cave they were currently in.

It really didn't matter at the moment. They were safe and everyone seemed alright aside from the scrapes from the wyverns, not to mention how close Spyro was at the moment.

Looking out over Zach, Cynder could see the storm outside had waned to no more than a light snowfall. They could easily fly thought it if they wanted to, and she was sure the storm would dissipate once they were a ways away from the island.

In other words, they could leave whenever they wanted to. And while Cynder relished spending time next to Spyro, the bitter cold atmosphere and stale air were enough to make her want to get moving.

Gently nuzzling against Spyro, Cynder whispered into his ear. "Come on Spyro, Its time to get up."

Spyro let out a low hum and returned the nuzzle. "Hmm… is the storm gone yet?"

"Not entirely, but it will be easy enough to fly though, as long as you're not afraid of a little cold." Cynder nudged him with her shoulder.

"If I remember correctly, it was you who was shivering uncontrollably before, and I think I'm the one keeping you warm here."

Cynder let out a warning growl, "and if I remember correctly, it was me who dragged your sorry but out of the ocean."

"Do I have to separate you two?" Zach's voice was groggy as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, not even bothering to turn toward them.

"Good morning to you too Zach." Cynder smiled as the white dragon raised his head, bumping it against the low ceiling of the cave. "Did you sleep well?"

Zach rubbed his head. "As well as I could is this cramped cave with you two. But I suppose I should be asking you that question. You were the one that slept through most of yesterday."

"Was I really out that long?" Cynder turned back to look at Spyro.

"Yeah, you had me worried for a moment."

"I worried you? Cynder glared at Spyro. "You two fell out of the sky, in the middle of a fight might I add, and left me in the middle of nowhere. I was afraid you had both died out there." Cynder turned to Zach. "Wonderful job keeping Spyro afloat there Zach. What happened with you two anyway?"

A small smile crept onto Spyro's face. "Oh, we just decided to meet with an old friend."

Puzzlement crossed Cynder's face before she too broke out in a large smile. "You got to see Ignitus!"

Spyro's smile widened, "Yeah, but how did you know?"

Cynder's smile faded and she looked away as Zach shuffled away from her. "Um… Zach kind of told me…"

Spyro leaned in toward Cynder, "keeping secrets now are we?" Cynder remained silent and looked at the ground until Spyro nuzzled under her chin. "Don't worry about it. I know you meant well. Zach explained everything."

"Thank you. I'm glad you got to see him again, I know he meant a lot to you."

"I'm just glad he's ok. I wish our visit could have ended on a lighter note though."

"What do you mean?" Cynder looked quizzically at Spyro before turning to Zach.

Zach spoke with traces of sorrow in his voice. "I didn't exactly find the answers I was looking for. I don't really know what I'm going to do now…" It was the truth, but he knew he was lying to them by leaving out what happened after their meeting with Ignitus. Still, there wasn't really a way he could tell them, even if he wanted.

"Why not come back to the temple with us? If there's anyone who can help you, it's probably the guardians." Cynder stood to her feet and stretched as she talked.

"That's what I said." Spyro stood to his feet as well. "Come on Zach, you don't really have anything to lose at this point, and at the very least it's a better place to think than this cold cave."

Zach forced a smile "alright, I suppose you're right. I assume we're heading out then?"

Cynder snorted. "The sooner the better, this place isn't exactly the most hospitable island, and it doesn't harbor pleasant memories either."

"Alright then, lead the way"

Cynder stepped around Zach and out into the open air, Spyro was close behind, and Zach followed him soon after.

Zach shivered as the pads on his feet came into contact with the icy snow. It wasn't something, that really bothered him, but he wasn't anxious to keep standing on it either. "So, does anyone know where we're going?"

Cynder looked over at him to answer, but quickly turned away in a failed attempt to stifle her laughter.

"What?" Zach stood and stared at her with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. It was a few moments before she answered.

"It's just funny, with your white scales, you blend in pretty well with the snow. If it weren't for the color of your horns, I might not have picked you out."

Zach scowled at her for another moment before letting a smile break through, "blending in just seems to be one of my talents…" Cynder smiled again, and Zach could see Spyro snickering out of the corner of his vision as well. "But really, does anyone know where were going?"

"I do," Cynder ruffled her wings and stretched them to their full extent, "you two try not to fall out of the sky this time."

"Hey, we accomplished what we set out to do didn't we?" Spyro stretched his wings as well "well for the most part anyway," turning to Zach, Spyro gave an apologetic look. "Did you decide on what you're going to do?"

Zach scratched at the snow beneath his feet. "I figured I would tag along with you guys for the time being. It's possible that the guardians might be able to head me in the right direction."

"Well there's no use just talking about it, "Cynder jumped into the air and beat down with her wings, tiny ice particles scattering from the downdraft, "why don't we get going."

"I guess we can't say no to that." Spyro and Zach took off as well, quickly catching up to Cynder as she soared away from the island.

"You know, Spyro and I have seen a lot of places too, we might know a way or two to get you back home."

Zach took off after them; Cynder leading them in a lazy arc away from the island and in what Zach could only assume was the direction of the temple. Zach almost laughed as he flew through the snow filed air. "If only it were that simple."

"I've never heard that one before…" Spyro looked skeptically over at Zach.

Cynder smiled at Zach as well, although Zach could see the suspicion behind her eyes. "Nothing is ever easy with you

"Nope…" Zach flashed his teeth back at them. "Not to be the annoying one on this trip, but how long do you think it will take to get back to the temple from here, seeing as we actually know where we're going this time."

Cynder drifted down in front of Zach so she didn't have to talk as loudly. "It should only be an hour or two from here if we fly straight and don't run into any more surprises; that is if you both don't decide to drop out of the sky on me again."

Spyro rolled over in the air, dropping down onto Cynder like a rock, forcing her down a few feet before pushing off her back.

"Spyro!" Cynder shouted as she tilted her wings to catch herself, glaring up after the purple dragon.

Zach laughed as Cynder shot after Spyro, both of them spiraling and arcing back toward the temple. He felt some sense of relief as he watched them fly, but it did little to release tension from the knot in his chest. He had a lot to think through… at least he would get a little bit of time to think through it.

Zach smiled with mild relief as he began to recognize the terrain below him. He knew they were nearing the end of their long trek, and while that would mean relief for his aching wings, it meant another flood of questions that would only make his choices harder. Still, anything seemed better than flying at the moment, and he could probably get away with catching a few hours of sleep before he had to answer anything. They had been out flying all day.

It would give him a respite from his raging thoughts as well. His entire return flight had been plagued with thoughts of what he was going to do. Even from the beginning, his goal had simply been to get home, but if that meant…..

Zach shook his head once again, if that meant he had to follow through with what the 'guardians' told him to do, he would rather just be stuck here. She didn't deserve it after all that had happened, and he would never be able to forgive himself or forget if the blood ended up on his hands. But at the same time, he felt the nagging concern that what they had told him had been the truth. If the two worlds really were drawing closer together, it would only be a matter of time until they all died anyway, and didn't the lives of millions outweigh the life of one person?

Snorting, Zach ripped himself out of that train of thought. The longer he flew, the more he felt himself drifting back to that conclusion, and it scared him. He wasn't making any decisions any time soon. Spyro and cinder deserved to at least know about what was going on as well, it did concern them. But at the same time, telling them would only complicate things. Spyro would be sure to do anything to prevent it, and it was possible that Cynder would entertain thoughts of self-sacrifice, especially if she thought she was a cause of the problem. Then again, they would both have to believe him first.

Reaching up to his arm, Zach rubbed the smooth stone wrapped around his shoulder. True to the guardians' word, it had stayed with him after he left, and Spyro and Cynder both hadn't seemed to notice either. It was one more thing pointing to what the guardians said being true. They had known so much… about him… about what was going on. He didn't want to believe that what they were saying was true, but at the same time…

"A lot on your mind?" Cynder's voice broke Zach's concentration and he quickly moved his hand away from his shoulder, regardless of if Cynder could see the stone and chain or not

"You could say that…" Zach's gaze met Cynder's but he quickly looked away.

"You have to quit looking so depressed. We'll find a way to get you back home, well as soon as you tell us where that is anyway." Cynder flashed him a smile and Zach couldn't help but smile back in return.

"Yeah I know, you guys deserve some answers. It's just that things really didn't go the way that I had hoped, and now I really have to figure out how I'm going to get out of my current predicaments.

"Come on, it can't be that bad. All we have to do is figure out where were supposed to take you. It's not that hard, and it's not like Spyro and I have anything better to do anyway. Besides, it's part of our duty, both as guardians and as friends. Once we figure out where to go, all we need to do is drag your sorry but across the sky to get there."

Zach diverted his gaze again, choosing instead to look down at the tree line racing underneath him. "Yeah…"

Cynder's smile faded, and she began to look at Zach with a sense of worry. "There's something else isn't there, something you're not telling us."

"More than one thing actually…"

"Zach, were your friends. Whatever it is, we can't help you with it until you tell us. I want to help you. I owe you that much and I'm sure Spyro feels the same way."

Zach grunted as he pumped his wings to gain some altitude he had lost." It's not that simple. There are just some things I can't say. Not now… not yet…"

Cynder's eyes narrowed and Zach could begin to feel the frustration coming from her. "Can't you at least try? You say you want our help but then you won't tell us anything."

Zach closed his eyes in frustration; he didn't need this right now. There was enough on his mind without Spyro and Cynder trying to pry answers from him. He did see why they wanted answers though. He had kept a lot of secrets from them for a long time, and they deserved some answers. If he told them some of what was going on, it might sate their curiosity long enough to figure out what to do.

"I know, I know… you're right. How about this, after we get back to the temple and catch some rest, I tell you and Spyro what's going on. Just you and Spyro though, no one else. It's not that I don't trust other people, but I don't want more people knowing than necessary."

Cynder studied Zach for a moment before showing a small smile, "alright, I think we can start with that." Turning her head in the opposite direction, Cynder called out for her purple companion. "Spyro, come here for a second."

Spyro shook himself out of the daze he had been flying in and tilted his wings to glide down into a position next to Cynder "eh?"

"Looks like we might finally get some answers out of our mysterious white friend over there."

"Really?" Spyro raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, and I need you to help me hold him to it. After we get back and catch some rest, he's at least going to clear up some of the confusion as to what the hell is going on."

"About time" Spyro quipped and let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you both deserve some answers, but I don't know how much I can say."

Cynder rolled her eyes, "I guess some things never change with you then Zach, Eh Spyro…. Spyro?" Cynder looked over in concern when he didn't answer; it only worsened when he took off at high speed.

"What's the deal with him?" Zach looked over at Cynder, her concern mirrored on his own features, "Cynder?"

"Ancestors… no…" Cynder's voice caught half way in her throat as she spoke, sending a lance of fear through Zach. "It can't be… not now…"

Zach followed her line of sight. Off in the distance, Spyro was racing toward a trail of thick black smoke trailing off into the sky. He didn't have to guess twice to know where it was coming from.

"Let's go." Zach growled with some sense of anxiety rising within him. There would be no rest any time soon.

All three dragons raced through the air, Spyro far ahead of Zach and Cynder as their wings pounded mercilessly against the air, each wing beat magnifying the fear and anxiety rising in each dragon.

"It just can't be, no one would have a reason to…" Cynder spoke with a mixture of anger and fear as she raced alongside Zach, their weariness forgotten for the moment. "It just doesn't make any sense." Cynder shook her head, and Zach was mildly shocked to see her quickly shift to a clam determined demeanor. "It doesn't matter. All we can do now is try to fix this. Come on, we need to catch up to Spyro."

Zach was shocked to see Cynder put on another boost of speed, propelling herself faster than he ever could by herself. Moving into her wake, Zach was able to draft behind her and slowly catch up to Spyro. By the time they caught the purple dragon, Zach could see exactly what they were up against.

The temple was in chaos. Whatever parts weren't on fire were either badly scorched or missing large stone chucks out of structure. He didn't want to ponder what force could have blasted such large chucks out of the wall. A half dozen wyverns circled around the top of the temple, occasionally lobbing a fireball onto the damaged structure below. The signs of a battle within the temple were present as well. Zach could spot at least three dead apes sprawled across the landing to the temple. A sense of dread grew on him as he noticed the lack of the guardians or the candidates anywhere in the temple.

"Zach…. Zach!" Zach jumped as he realized Cynder was trying to snap him out of his thoughts. "I know you haven't done anything on this scale before, so just stay close to Spyro and me. We fight well as a duo so we should be able to handle most things, but watch our backs, and well make sure you get thought this as well. Got it?"

Zach opened his mouth to reply but found his mouth dry and his voice stuck in his throat. Struggling with his body, he only managed a nod in response.

"Good." Cynder turned her head as Spyro nudged her with his wing

"What do you think we should do Cynder?"

"We need to make sure everyone is ok in the temple first. Those wyverns may be tough, but they don't seem to be able to fit or maneuver inside the temple. If we just fly past them we can ignore them. They shouldn't pose a problem once were inside. After that we make our way to the center of the temple. If the guardians aren't there they're probably in the training rooms, so well head there.

Zach's voice was quite as he finally spoke, they we're getting close to the temple, they would only have a few more moments to prepare. "When you say, 'head to the center,' you really mean, 'fight our way to the center' don't you."

Cynder nodded solemnly in response.

"What do you think we'll find in there?" Zach looked over at both Spyro and Cynder, images of his friends quickly flashing though his mind, and just for a moment, he could see the worry on their faces as well. Neither replied, both choosing instead to focus on the goal in front of them. Their silence told Zach volumes.

It started with a shriek.

One of the large wyverns spotted them as they made their bee line toward the landing of the temple, banking down in order to cut the newcomers off from any entrance. Zach's gaze shifted nervously the approaching wyvern, but Spyro and Cynder seemed to pay it no attention, all three dragons rocketing toward and over the stone balcony.

They all landed hard, talons scraping against hard stone as they desperately tried to stop their momentum. Zach could feel the soft pads of his feet ripping and tearing under the force, but the pain either refused to process or his adrenalin was blocking it out. As He neared the archway into the temple, Zach's balance gave out on him, sending him tumbling and cracking his head against the wall.

Scrambling to his feet, Zach fought to clear the starts from his vision and maintain balance as the wyvern outside screeched a warning to everyone within earshot. Looking down, he could see bloody footprints from where his feet had been torn raw, and he could feel a small trickle of blood down the back of his head.

"Come on Zach, we can't have you hurting yourself before we even start here." Cynder helped push Zach to his feet as they began to move quickly into the temple.

"That's not exactly the best way to land…" Zach could see both Spyro and Cynder had torn their feet up as well, Cynder gritting her teeth and Spyro wearing a snarl on his face."

"It was either that or get knocked off the platform by that wyvern, we'll live. Now stay quiet unless you need to. The less distractions, the better." Cynder silenced him and crept forward, her body changing to react at a moment's notice.

Zach couldn't help but feel out of place next to the two warriors. They led the way, both confident in their abilities and ready to react to any threat, while he hung in the back, flat footed and more concentrated on staying alive then hunting down any opposition in the temple. It reminded him of just how little training he actually received.

She didn't know how they had gotten into the temple

She didn't know how she had ended up alone.

She didn't know how she would make it through this.

But she sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight.

They had cornered her into her dormitory wing of the temple after they landed; cutting her off from the rest of the candidates she knew to still be in the arena and leaving her to fend for herself. And while one ape normally wouldn't be a problem, the ten armored ones bearing down on her were.

Chara ducked under another arrow as she backed up slowly, lobbing a fireball at the group of apes. They weren't making things easy. They were a much more organized enemy than she had fought before, and they were moving methodically enough to not make any mistakes.

An ape in the lead raised his shield to block the fireball as those behind him ducked for cover, the streak of flame dissipating harmlessly against the shield. Once the flame had dissipated, the two archers behind the ape rose with their bows drawn. Two sharp twangs signaled the release of the arrows, and Chara dove to get out of the way, hissing in pain as one of the arrows punctured a hole in her wing.

Scrambling back to her feet, Chara jumped back as two more arrows broke against the ground she had just been standing on. Her mind scrambled for a way to get out of the situation she was in; she couldn't get past them due to their numbers, and between the shields in front and the two archers constantly firing arrows at her, she couldn't get any decent hits on the apes. And there was only so far she could back down the hallway…

Gnashing her teeth, Chara unleashed a torrent of flame onto the floor of the hallway, the flames sticking to the ground and forming an obscuring wall between her and her enemy. The apes didn't seem to mind though, each taking cover behind a shield and waiting for the fire to slowly die

Taking a moment, Chara checked behind her to get her bearings, she was running out of hallway fast, and she didn't want to be pressed up against a wall when she finally made her stand. Spreading her legs and lowering herself to the ground, she scanned the flames for her chance.

Her opponents were slow and methodical, careful not to advance past where they could stay safely within their wall of shields, but with methodology came carelessness and laziness, and she spotted it in one of the apes lowering his shield for a moment on the other side of the flames.

It was all the opportunity she needed.

Jumping though the flames, Chara wrapped herself in the flames as she pounced on the shield of the careless ape. Her weight brought the shield fully down to the ground, and in the process, exposed the carless ape beneath. Cracking her jaws, Chara released a torrent of flame into its face, kicking off the shield to avoid the countering flurry of swords coming from the ape's comrades.

Rolling back through her diminishing wall of flame, Chara stood back to her feet and flared her wings in challenge. The smell of burnt fur permeated the air as the apes pained shrieks drifted off into oblivion. She had taken one down, but it had no doubt enraged the others. And while more carelessness on their part would give her a chance, she needed to be more careful about her own actions. Her last move hadn't left her unscathed.

Small tears had appeared in her wings where a few apes had managed to make contact, but they were glancing blows, and her scales had prevented any real damage. Still, she didn't have room to make errors. The small wounds would add up, and they had numbers on her side.

Allowing herself to take a step back, Chara watched the group of apes through the dying flames. They were much more focused now, all of them focused and intent on taking the dragon in front of them. She would have a hard time catching one of them off guard again.

Her list of options diminished quickly as the group approached, driving fear into the pit of her stomach, she had to move and do it fast. At this point, it wasn't going to matter how intelligent the move was if she didn't do it soon.

Taking a deep breath, Cara loosed a series of fireballs in quick succession, peppering the shields of the apes in front and throwing up a thick cloud of smoke in their faces. Sprinting after her attack, Chara bashed into the ape on the far right of the group, knocking him off the ground and onto his back.

Lashing out, Chara attempted to connect with anything she could. Teeth, talons, tail; it didn't matter, as long as it made contact with her enemy. But after the momentary surprise of a dragon coming through the smoke, the apes lashed back with their own weapons, and Chara found herself beginning to focus more on not getting hit than hitting her enemy.

Chara let out a yelp of pain as she felt a sword drive into her arm, forcing her to stagger back from the group to a safer distance.

Growling Chara tries to fight the darkness at the edges of her vision as the pain from her wound began to could her mind. Taking the change to glance down, she could see the sword had pierced all the way to the bone, and while the wound wasn't bleeding profusely, she wouldn't be able to fight much longer.

Holding her injured arm to her side, Chara tried to balance herself on her three good legs as the apes reorganized from the brief chaos. Sighing in despair, Chara could see that she hadn't managed to remove any of the apes from the fight. A few sported long gashes or punctures, but they all seemed capable to fight and angrier than ever. Slowly they began to advance on the dragoness, mirroring the same steady fashion they had always used.

Spitting out a series of fireballs, Chara tried to stop the advancing group of apes to collect herself, but they had smelled blood, and were not going to give up so easily.

What seemed like an explosion wracked the back of the group of apes, wrapping two completely in a torrent of fire and sending small flames licking at the clothing and fur of the others. The apes immediately turned to their back, momentarily forgetting about the wounded dragoness in front of them

Chara was shocked to see a grey dragon leap over the group of apes, raking his talons across a few of their faces as he passed. Landing hard, he quickly spun and released another defensive wave of fire, once more buying Chara a few moments of much needed breathing space.

Quickly padding over, Ashe supported Chara's bad leg and helped her stand to her feet.

"Ashe! What are you doing?" Chara looked at her friend with a mixture of relief and fear. "Why did you come back here?"

Ashe turned and gave a small reassuring smile, "I'm not just going to leave my friend to fight these apes all by herself, especially when she's hurt."

"You idiot," Chara's voice cracked as she looked at the ground, trying desperately to ignore the pain in her arm. "You should have just left me here alone…"

"Hey now, we can make it through this. There aren't that many of them." Ashe showed his teeth and growled at the approaching apes. "Just stay behind me and watch my back. I swear I won't let them get to you again." Ashe flashed a smile once more before turning to fully face the apes. They had gathered themselves from his attack and were organizing back into formation. Using his tail he gently pushed Chara back away from the apes, placing himself between them and her.

"They won't get through me."

Zach tried to steady his breathing as he slowly talked behind Spyro and Cynder as they traversed the quiet hallways of the temple.

They had been fighting for a few minutes, running into the occasional ape as they traversed the temple, Spyro or Cynder easily silencing them before they could sound the alarm. The simplicity of the advance startled Zach. He knew they were only running into the rear guard of the apes, but he still felt there would be more of them, or at least pose more of a problem.

Spyro stopped the group as the approached the large central room in the middle of the temple. "Like I thought, there are a few apes in here. We might not be able to take them out without sounding an alarm."

Zach looked carefully into the room. Five different apes stood at attention in different parts of the room, all looking down one hallway or another in an attempt to make sure none of their enemies passed through unnoticed. "What's the problem; I've seen you take more than one ape at a time. There are only five of them in there."

"That's not the problem," Cynder kept her voice to such a quiet whisper that Zach had to strain to hear her. "Spyro and I could easily take them all, not to mention we have you, but they're too far apart to get them all without one of them sending the alarm. And without knowing how many apes there are in this temple, that's not a good thing." Cynder let out a short huff. "It's that one across the rooms that's the problem…"

Zach swallowed as a plan clicked in his mind. "If I get him, do you think you can get the other four?"

Cynder thought for a moment. "Yeah, but…"

"Go do it Zach," Spyro nodded at Zach, "well go once we see that ape fall. We should have plenty of time in the confusion.

Zach nodded solemnly before tapping into what meager energy he had left. Walking into the room, Zach had a few moments to muse before he reached his target. It was strange, knowing that someone that was trying to kill him was essentially looking at without knowing it. The thoughts of what could go wrong if he lost his concentration plagued his mind, but he quickly shook them off as he padded closer.

It was those same thoughts that gave him the strength to do what he was about to do. These monsters were hurting his friends, and he would not stand for it.

Reaching the ape on the other side of the room, Zach had to hold his breath as the smell of rotten meat and blood flooded his nose. The ape was putrid to say the least. Gritting his teeth, Zach had to surpass a snarl as his anger began to boil within him. This ape had no right to attack his friends, in their home none the less. They had done nothing. Reaching up with his tail, Zach quickly wrapped the end around the ape's throat, causing it to let out a startled gurgle.

It was all the warning it got before Zach pulled the sharp edge of his tail blade across its throat.

Multiple things happened in that instant. Zach's blade caught the arty in the ape's neck, killing it instantly and coating Zach's white tail in blood. The other aped were both confused and alarmed at the sudden spray of blood from their comrade, and Spyro and Cynder both attacked from their hiding places.

All of the apes were dead before the one by Zach hit the ground.

Spyro and Cynder quickly ran over to Zach. "Come on, we should look to see if there's anyone left in their bedrooms or the wings of the temple, the guardians are probably in the arena, and they can hold out well enough without us. We'll start with this wing."

Spyro quickly took off down a hallway, Cynder and Zach hot on his heels. They didn't have to wait long

Zach felt his stomach lurch as they ran into another group of apes. Blood was covering the ground, and Zach could feel the rage and violence coming off of the apes like a wave. But the worst part is that the apes were turned away from them, corning their prey back into a corner. Even through the tangled mess of fur, Zach could make out two familiar dragons."

Chara was pressed up against the corner, her right foreleg held tight against her chest. Zach could see a large gashing marring her leg, thick coats of blood coated her crimson scales and dripped onto the stone beneath her. Her wings were cut and flayed, hanging in mangles ribbons as she held them pressed to her side. She was not in good shape, and her leg kept her from moving and fighting, instead she sat pressed against the corner, lobbing weak fireballs at anything she could. Zach could see her strength was failing her.

Ashe stood between her and the approaching group of apes, his teeth bared in warning as they approached. He sported his fair share of injuries as well, and Zach couldn't help but wonder how he was still standing, let alone holding his own against six apes. Blood ran from numerous deep gashes down his sides and tail, making the floor slick as he tried to maintain his balance, Zach could also see an arrow protruding from his right hind leg, only the fletching still visible on the length of the shaft. It was incredible that he was still standing, let alone still fighting.

Spyro wasted no time. A bolt of electricity lanced from his maw and struck the leading ape, dropping him in seconds. Cynder followed with a gust of wind though the hallway, slamming the remaining apes up against the wall of the temple.

"Zach, Spyro and I have this; go take care of Ashe and Chara.

Zach didn't hesitate. Running over to the two dragons, Zach caught Ashe just as he slumped to the ground. Letting the grey dragon slide down to the ground, Zach rolled him onto his back and began to look at the seriousness of his injuries.

"Is he going to be ok?" Zach turned momentarily to Chara as she limped over to the two male dragons. He could see the nasty gash in her arms, and her voice gave away that she was suffering from more than just physical injuries at the moment, but he could tell she would live through the injuries for the moment.

It was something he couldn't say about the grey dragon on the ground. The arrow in his leg was far too deep for him to remove and was bleeding profusely, multiple deep gashes ran down his sides and tail due to numerous hits from a sword, and half of his left side was an ugly blue color from where an ape had smashed his ribs with a club.

Zach's heart caught in his throat as his mind began to process the severity of Ashe's injuries. He couldn't bring his head up to look Chara in the eyes. He wouldn't make it without help right now.

"Back up a little bit for we, would you Chara." Zach tried to keep his voice steady, but he could hear the cracks beginning to form.

Chara complied, stepping back to allow Zach room to move on top of Ashe. He didn't know if he could do it. When he had first used this ability, it was only a simple wound and had completely drained him, and he was tired. But he had come a long way since then, and his stamina had improved.

And he was sure as hell not going to let this dragon die.

Closing his eyes, Zach focused all of his remaining energy into the grey dragon below him in a desperate attempt to mend his broken body. He could feel his own energy slowly seeping into his ward, leaving a dark absence behind as it mended the scars on the grey dragon.

"Zach!" Cynder's cautious voice broke into his mind as he worked, she must have made quick work of the apes. "Zach you know you can't push yourself."

He ignored her, instead trying to chase down every speck of energy in his body to pass it down into Ashe. He could feel his own body shaking, but he could sense his battle with the ancestors for Ashe below him. Zach trying to replace Ashe's energy faster than it was fading from his body.

"Zach, you need to stop." This time Cynder's voice was more forceful, but he could hear the sorrow behind it. They both knew what if meant for him to stop.

Ignoring her again, Zach pushed more energy into Ashe, felling as his work was slowly beginning to outpace the loss from his body. Zach shuddered as he felt his consciousness lapse, but he continued on, he was so close…

"Zach, we don't need two dead dragons!" Cynder's voice was sharp this time, and he could hear Chara sob at Cynder's words.

Gritting his teeth, Zach prepared to push what energy he had left into Ashe. He was not going to lose this fight.

Just as he was going to release the last fragments of his energy, Zach felt himself get torn from the dragon below him and flung to the ground. Cracking open his eyes, he could see Cynder above him.

"Just a little longer…" Zach's head rolled to the sided as he tried to keep conscious. He had been so close.

He could faintly hear Ashe's ragged breathing off to his side. The grey dragon was still alive.

"You dumbass!" Cynder cuffed Zach across the face as she stood above him, her voice high and a little frantic. "Come on now stay focused. Don't die on us now."

Zach tried to reply, but he found his head too heavy to do anything.

"Zach… Zach come on please…." Chara's voice hitched again as she found herself on the verge of tears. She laid down next to Zach, pushing up against the white dragon. "Come on… please…"

As the all too familiar darkness clouded his vision again, Zach could hear Chara's desperate cries for him fade off into oblivion.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Sorrow

Zach woke to an incredibly sore body, each part of his body expressing its unwillingness to do anything though searing pain and an inability to move. He didn't need to think about why his body hurt though, his dreams had been plagued with the anguished cries of his friends and the possibilities of what might have happened. But still those were only possibilities. He didn't know what had happened for sure; he didn't even know where he was.

Focusing as much as he could, Zach cracked open his eyes only to wince at the light. The setting of the room was familiar, but it wasn't his normal room within the temple. Instead, his mind slowly pieced together that he was currently in a corner of the infirmary that he had spent so much time in with Makias. Gathering as much energy as he could, Zach tilted his head to the side to catch a glimpse of the other side of the infirmary, but he regretted the action as soon as he did it.

Stars danced across his vision and darkness crawled along the edges as that small motion took all the energy his body had. He was completely and utterly sapped.

Giving up, Zach let out an aggravated groan, he wasn't going anywhere for the time being.

"Hey there," Cynder's voice caught Zach's attention from the hallway. Walking in, she looked at him with concern. "You're awake."

Groaning again, Zach twisted his body ever so slightly so he could open his mouth. "Barely." His voice sounded as weak as he felt.

"You had us worried for a few days…"

"A few days?" Zach groaned again, this time from frustration. "How long was I out?"

Cynder let out a heavy sigh. "The attack was three days ago."

"… that long huh?"

"Yeah…" Cynder nodded solemnly in response, leaving the room in silence again.

Zach stared at her a moment, the question he desperately wanted to ask hanging on the edge of his tongue. But he already knew what the answer was going to be. Cynder's body language and solemn tone told him everything.

Opening his dry mouth, Zach tried to make eye contact. "So… did he… did he make it?"

Cynder stared at him a moment before looking down at the floor, making Zach's stomach sink with her gaze. Her voice was steady as she replied. "No, he didn't. You bought us enough time to clear the rest of the temple and get him to the infirmary, but Makias and the guardians couldn't do anything to help him, he just had too many injures."

"Oh…" Zach let his body sag further into the bedding, what little energy he had sapped by the knowledge that it had been for nothing…

Struggling with his emotions, Zach tried to keep talking. "How is everyone else?"

Cynder let out another sigh. "The guardians are all alright; they were in the arena with Felix, Makias, and Flint when the attack came so they're alright too. But I'm afraid that's about where the good news stops. Crispin was caught alone in his room, so he didn't make it… and we found Comet's body out in the woods yesterday. He must have stumbled onto the apes camp by accident, it looked like they had been there for a while watching us, and they probably only attacked because he found them."

Zach spent a long moment in silence, his heart caught in his throat as he tried to hold his feelings in check. It wasn't supposed to go like this… things like this were not supposed to happen.

"What about Chara?"

"She's alright. I'm actually surprised Chara isn't with you right now actually. She spent a lot of time here after things calmed down a little bit."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's been taking care of you mostly, I was just sent here to check on you again by the guardians." Cynder sat down next to Zach, her voice returning to a more normal tone.

"How is she doing? I know she was pretty beat up when we arrived."

"Her wings are pretty beat up, so she shouldn't fly for a while. Most of the cuts and bruises on her are healing up nicely, Makias made sure of that, but her leg still seems to give her a little trouble" Zach could hear distain creep into her voice. "The guardians said that once her wings heal enough they're going to head to Warfang. They said it's for safety. But I know there is something they haven't told us yet."

"I could probably…"

Cynder cut him off, "don't even think about it. You shouldn't move, so much as try to use your power. We need you to be able to fly soon so don't go doing anything stupid."

Zach grit his teeth "fine… do you know where she went through?"

"That depends, why are you asking?"

"Why are you asking? Zach shot back.

"Because she doesn't need anything else upsetting her right now, and that's all you ever seem to do when you talk to her."

Zach growled into silence, her words stung, but he couldn't refute them.

Cynder waited a moment before speaking again, "it doesn't really matter anyway; you shouldn't be up and around. Do you want something to eat? I can grab something for you on my way back. I should go tell the guardians that you're up."

Zach considered it, but the flips and twists his stomach was performing in his chest banished any though of food from his mind, no matter how hungry he was. "No, I'm good."

"I guess I should have phrased that differently, you need to eat something or you're never going to recover. Just stay put, I'll grab something for you on the way back." Cynder turned and left the room quickly, not leaving Zach a chance to protest. Grumbling, Zach closed his eyes again, he might as well get a little more sleep while he could.

It didn't take Cynder long to return, announcing her presence by dropping the food she was carrying right next to Zach's head. "Come on lazy, I'm supposed to make sure you get some food into you. The guardians said they would come by sometime later to check on you themselves, but until then, you're stuck with me."

"Great, my very own babysitter, just what I wanted." Zach groaned as he attempted to right himself, the muscles in his arms and along his back constantly giving him reminders of exactly what had happened. "Thank you for the food though."

Zach nibbled on the food slowly, not trusting his stomach to take anything too quickly. "So where's Spyro, I figured he'd be around with you."

Cynder let out a heavy sigh, "he has been spending a lot of time by himself recently. I know he feels responsible for some of what happened here, but he won't listen to me when I try to talk to him."

"You're right, he isn't the one responsible for this…" looking down, Zach pushed away the remainder of the food; he had barely even touched it.

"Not you too…" Cynder looked over at him, a mixture of anger and sympathy in her voice. "Zach you are not the one at fault here. The only things responsible for this are the remnants of the war. The apes have always had a grudge against the dragons and from what the guardians have told me it's no different with the wyverns. This would have happened whether we were here or not. So I am going to tell you this once, and you better get it into your thick skull: You are not at fault here, and you did everything you could to fix what happened."

Zach gnashed his teeth in frustration. "Sure you can say that easily, you fought off more than your fair share of those apes and wyverns, but what did I do? I hid behind you and Spyro to get though the temple and then couldn't even save one person…What does it matter to you what I think anyway?"

"Because I care!" Cynder let out a growl that silenced anything Zach might have used as a rebuttal. "I don't think you realize quite what happened here Zach. "You're not the only one suffering here. You're not the only one who lost friends, so quit wallowing in your self-absorbed pity and do something about the people that are still here!

"You don't know what it's like!"

Zach regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. Cynder's face contorted deeper in anger and for a second he thought she might hit him. Cynder looked at him with a snarl fiercer than he had ever seen her wear while fighting, her body was tensed and she was slowly carving groves into the floor with her talons. When she did talk her voice made Zach's blood run cold.

"You have the gall to tell me that I don't know what it's like? Zach, those were my friends too and three of them died! You don't think that I've asked myself how I could have stopped this, or how I could have saved them. Do you even know how many nights I have spent up at night asking myself how I could have done the things in my past?" Cynder took a breath, her snarl fading but not the level of her anger. "but do you know what Zach, I've learned that there isn't anything I can do about the events of the past. I've learned that it's far more worth my time to quit wallowing in the past and to focus on what can be done in the future. What's done is done Zach. No one could have known what was going to happen, and as much as it hurts, there isn't anything more you could have done."

"You don't know that!" Zach gnashed his teeth again, his voice much quieter than before.

"No, I don't. but you do. You were this close to not waking up Zach, this close! I don't know what keeps getting into you. You waver between a sensible being to someone who won't share the slightest details with his friends. Whether this is your true home or not, we are your friends! And contrary to what you think, some people here actually care about what happens to you." Cynder took a breath, backing down and lowering her voice, though it still retained its venom.

"But I'm starting to think you don't deserve any of it…" another moment passed before Cynder turned and began walking toward the door. "I'm supposed to tell you to stay put until you get better, but right now I really don't care. But whatever you do, at least think before you do it, because I'm not going to be here to help you if you fall."

Zach was left in silence as Cynder left the room, her words hanging heavily in the air long after she was gone. The whole ordeal had left Zach uncomfortable and he wanted nothing more than to get away from himself. He didn't need anyone to tell him how badly he had screwed up. Forcing his feet underneath him, Zach tried to push himself to his feet. He needed to move, to get out of here, to go anywhere. The room reeked of sweat, blood, and some kind of antiseptic and that combined with the food Cynder had left in the room left images of death and gore flashing through his head.

Pushing with his legs, Zach strained to push himself to his feet, his sore muscles protesting at every inch. Slowly he rose to his feet, but after only a few seconds his weakened body gave out on him, pitching him forward and causing his chin to connect with the stone floor with a loud crack.

Groaning, Zach tuned his head to the side as he laid there, the thick metallic taste of blood beginning to fill his mouth after only a few seconds. He hoped someone had heard him fall, wished that someone would be there to help him back off the ground. He laid there for what seemed like an eternity, too weak to help himself as a small bit of blood leaked out of his mouth onto the cold stone floor. He had probably bit himself when he cracked his head on the floor, there was a good chance he had split his chin too. He wanted… needed someone to come help him. To take him off of this hard stone floor, to take him out of this mess he was in…. to take him home.

Zach cried quietly to himself as he lay there, turning his head to look away from the rest of the infirmary. Slowly he began to drift off to sleep; help would not come for him today.

Cynder walked through the halls quickly, her talons digging into the floor a little more than they did usually. She was furious over what had just happed with Zach… couldn't believe that he said some of the things that he did. But at the same time, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. Turning a sharp corner, Cynder sat down against the wall and ran her talons down the horns on her head.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Cynder took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. It was quiet in this part of the temple, far enough away from the guardians and the candidates that she could just think. Everyone had been on edge recently and for good reason too, but the constant stress was beginning to wear on everyone. Most of the time everyone walked around in a solemn silence, either unable or unwilling to come to terms with what had happened. And when there was conversation, it wasn't long until they were at each other's throats.

The each of the candidates mostly wandered off by themselves in an attempt to cope in their own manner. She knew it wasn't healthy for them, and she wanted to try and talk to them but could never really make that connection. It wasn't exactly her forte.

The guardians spent their time together, talking in hushed whispers that often ceased once she or one of the other younger dragons walked into the room. It didn't sit right with her. They were hiding something from her but what exactly, she couldn't tell.

Lashing her tail against the wall Cynder let out an angered grunt and stormed down the hall. Why did this always happen. Just when she had some semblance of a normal life something else had to come tear it apart. It wasn't too long until she had wandered into the central chambers of the temple where the guardians and the remaining candidates were talking.

As she walked in Terrador turned to catch her attention. "Cynder may we have a moment?"

"What?" Her voice came out harsher than she had intended startling the guardians and drawing the attention of Flint and Makias from the edge of the room. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap like that…"

Terrador nodded in understanding. "It is understandable Cynder; we are all still a little on edge." He paused a moment as Cynder nodded. "We would appreciate it if you would go check on Spyro. We have not seen him since this morning and we figured you would know where he was."

"Yeah I can do that." Cynder grumbled as she turned around to head back out the door. It seemed like she was everyone's babysitter today…

"Was Zach feeling any better when you checked on him again?" Terrador's stopped Cynder before she got all the way out of the room.

"He was still conscious when I made it back, but he's probably asleep now, he couldn't really move much."

"Well at least he was awake." Cyril piped in from the other side of Terrador, a large smile present on his face. "We could all do with some good news in these times."

"Yeah…" Cynder snorted as she walked out of the room, turning a corner to head out to the balcony. She had a good idea of where Spyro was, so finding him wouldn't be very difficult. Convincing him to stop berating himself would be a completely different story. Letting out another sigh, Cynder stepped out onto the balcony and spread her wings. Taking to the air, Cynder craned her neck to scan the top of the temple for her companion. Hopefully she could get him to talk to her this time…

The last few days she hadn't really been able to talk to him. The first day they had been incredibly busy cleaning up and repairing the temple so they hadn't seen much of each other, and the time after that had been a blur of deep sleep and late nigh watches. But even after that he seemed to distance himself, spending most of his time alone on the roof or out in the woods. She would often try to go sit with him, but he would often wander off before she could get to him, and even when she did he would often just sit in silence. It didn't surprise her that he had gotten like this after the attack, but it hurt that he wouldn't talk to her.

Circling once again, Cynder spotted the familiar flash of purple against the stone of the temple and angled her glide down so she landed next to him, the soft click of her talons against the stone and the draft of her wings signaling her landing.

"Hey." Cynder voiced quietly as she sat down beside him, ruffling her wings to get them into a comfortable position behind her. "How are you doing?"

Spyro let out a heavy sigh before looking at her sadly. "As well as I could be in this situation."

"You know this is not your fault." Cynder said as forcefully as she dared, looking over to make eye contact with Spyro.

"Maybe, but I still have a hard time convincing myself." Spyro tuned and looked at her for a moment before turning his gaze out to the forest again.

"We did everything you could, there's no way we could have known this was going to happen…"

"I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to take comfort in that. If we did everything we could and three of our friends died, what does that say about us?" Spyro let out a heavy sigh. "It seems all I ever bring is trouble to the people I'm close to."

"Spyro, I know you, you would never willingly put anyone in harm's way. You are not responsible for any of this. There will always be people who will want to take advantage of and harm others in this world, and there isn't always something we can do about it." Cynder nudged Spyro with her horns. "But you are always the first to step up for the little guy, even when other people believe it's a cause beyond saving… Spyro you can't be everywhere at once, and you can't always save everyone. You are just one dragon, and you have accomplished more already than most people will in their entire lives. Stop berating yourself for things beyond your control and look at the things you have accomplished. If we hadn't showed up when we did things may have ended even worse. You helped save a daughter, a sister, and a friend who may not have made it otherwise. Sometimes I don't think you see the hero that you are to other people."

Spyro looked over at her, his gaze a little lighter than it had been before and a small grateful smile on his face. "I know… but still…"

Cynder let out a heavy sigh. "You know, one of these days I'm going to lock you and Zach in a room and not let either of you out until at least one of you stops blaming yourself."

Spyro let out a halfhearted chuckle, "having the same issues with him?"

"That and a few more, I can't believe the things he does some of the time."

"What did he do?" His voice curious, Spyro shifted his body so he was turned more toward Cynder, his head turned and resting on his front legs.

"What didn't he do might be a shorter list."

"Isn't it usually?"

"Yes it is… The only reason I didn't hit him was because I was afraid that he might not wake up again…"

Spyro looked over at her, a mixture of emotions on his face. "What did he say to you?"

"He's being his usual self. I don't think he means most of the things he says anyway and I'm prone to giving him a little bit of slack after what we all went through… you know, I'm kind of glad it was me in there when he woke up."

Spyro let out a low hum, "Why is that?"

"I feel like the conversation may have followed a similar path if Chara had been there, and she's gone through too much already."

"That's probably true, but remember, you've gone through as much as everyone else

Cynder nudged him again with her shoulder. "If I remember correctly, it's you that has been distant for the past couple of days."

"And If I remember correctly, you haven't slowed down at all since it happened." Spyro nudged her back, but there was seriousness in his gaze, "are you sure you're doing alright?"

"I'm fine; you know you don't need to worry about me…"

"Cynder" his voice was soft, and it was just enough to break down the resistance she had been building

Cynder shook her head. "I don't know what we're going to do anymore. Everything just got shot to hell. Wyverns got thrown into the picture, the temple got attacked, and our friends are dead…" Cynder trailed off. "Things were supposed to calm down after we defeated Malefor. It wasn't supposed to be like this…"

Spyro remained silent, not sure of what he could say. They were silent for a long while, each with their own thoughts as the world turned around them. Cynder sighed heavily, her gaze watching to hawks flying off in the distance, both of them swirling and spiraling in different patterns. After a while they stopped their dancing in the sky, both flying off together as a wall of clouds began to develop in the distance.

"Looks like another storms brewing," Spyro looked off almost absentmindedly, "Seems like there are always storms here after our last fight with Malefor.."

Cynder looked at him again, a small sense of desperation in her eyes. "Do you think it will ever be over? All this fighting, all this death? …You know the one thing I always dreamed about was being free of it all. Free of the death and the killing, but it seems like wherever I go it's always one step in front of me."

Spyro laid his wing over her comfortingly before speaking, "Then maybe it's time to stop moving away from it and time to fight it. Cynder, I want things to calm down as much as you do, but I don't think that anything is going to happen unless we do something about it. I don't know about you, but I can't just sit by after what happened to our friends."

"I can't either Spyro, I just wish it didn't have to be us… you know?"

"Me too Cynder… me too…"

Zach awoke later that day in the same pitiful position he had fallen in, his body half slumped over the cushion he was laying on with his head and front limbs turned awkwardly on the hard floor. Rolling onto his stomach, Zach gagged on the blood that had dried and caked itself inside his mouth, coughing and spitting in an attempt to get the foul taste out of his mouth. Looking around, Zach could barely make out the rest of the infirmary as it was cloaked in darkness; the only light filtering thought the door from a few lit torches out in the hall. No one else was in the room at the moment, and he figured no one had checked on him since Cynder left, either that or no one had cared enough to move him from his position on the floor.

Rubbing his face, Zach could feel small flecks of dried blood flake off onto the ground but for the most part his chin seemed unharmed. His cheek burned him a little, he figured from where he bit himself when he fell, but it otherwise did not bother him. Opening his mouth, he attempted to call out for help, but was met with a dry wheeze and a fit of coughing. His throat ached and his mouth was devoid of saliva, leading him to discover just how thirsty he was.

Looking around, Zach spotted some water lying in one corner of the room, the only problem was that he would have to either wait for someone to get it for him, or get up and move to it, and from the looks of things, the first one wasn't really an option.

Settling his feet underneath him, Zach braced so he could push himself to his feet, praying that things went better than last time. Pushing with his arms, Zach managed to get himself to a sitting position only to feel his head start to spin as his body adjusted. Groaning and gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes for a moment and waited for the room to stop spinning.

After a moment Zach resigned himself to the fact that the room was not going to stop spinning and opened his eyes. Focusing on the ground in front of him to fight the nausea, Zach roughly kicked himself to his feet, feeling accomplished with himself that he did not fall over after standing a few moments.

This was immediately followed with an incredible sense of self-pity that he had been reduced to feeling accomplished after such a simple task of standing.

Pushing that out of his mind, Zach focused again on the water across the room while desperately trying to ignore the room spinning around him and the nausea in his stomach. Picking up his feet, he felt himself almost fall as he placed it just in front of himself. Slowly, he moved across the room, each step threatening to throw him to the ground but gradually bringing him closer to his objective.

After trudging across the room, Zach stood somewhat accomplished over his goal, and bending down he drank greedily from the water. The water was warm, but it was better than nothing. Drinking until he sated himself, Zach sat down and used some of the remaining water to wash off his face, removing some of the grime and dried blood that had built up on his face.

As he sat there, thoughts of his earlier conversation with Cynder began to drift through his head, and he cringed at some of the things he had said. She hadn't deserved how he had acted, and the more he thought about it, the more the things she said made sense, even if he didn't want to admit it. Now if only he could convince himself of what he knew to be true.

Taking a moment to settle himself, he closed his eyes as the water ran down his face and onto his chest, drawing streaks down his scales. The room had stopped spinning but had left a roaring headache in its wake leaving it hard to think. His body screamed at him to rest again; he still had a ways to go until he would regain his strength, but he really didn't want to spend another night in the depressing infirmary, and even with how tired he was he needed to move some to work out the knots and sore muscles that had built up from not moving for a couple of days.

Turning toward the door, Zach limped a few steps out into the hallway, his legs steadier underneath him as he began to move. Looking both directions down the hall he couldn't see anyone else in the hallway meaning they must either be asleep or in different portions of the temple. Deciding he really didn't have any better option, Zach turned and headed toward the central portion of the temple, figuring he would either find someone in the center part of the temple or he could go get some sleep in his own room.

Zach followed the wall closely as he moved through the temple, his scales scraping loudly against the wall as he gave himself something to lean against for support. Even in the dim torchlight he could tell something was different about the temple. The stones around him seemed brighter than normal, as if someone had scrubbed the worn surface off to get to new rock under the surface. With a start, he noticed that some sections of the wall had been recreated all together, creating sharp contrasts in the walls between the new and old pieces. It didn't take much for him to figure out that they were repairs after the attack on the temple.

Trying to push the thought out of his head, Zach tried to focus on the ground in front of him as he paced through the temple. Looking out, he surprisingly did not see anyone in the central chambers of the temple when he reached them, the only noise the rumbling thunder in the distance indicating a coming storm. Deciding that he really didn't want to go back to sleep quite yet, Zach turned and headed toward the balcony of the temple. He could at least watch the storm roll in before he went to bed.

Even with how slow he was walking, it wasn't long until Zach reached the outside balcony, the torchlight casting long shadows out onto the balcony that was briefly illuminated by flashes of lighting in the distance. Surprisingly he was not the only one with the idea to go out and watch the storm.

"Hey..." His voice came out dry and raspy, obviously startling the red dragoness sitting on the balcony. She turned around and stared at him with a mixture or surprise and concern for a moment before turning fully to face him.

"Zach? What are you doing out here?"

Zach gestured over her shoulder toward the approaching storm. " I figured I would come out and get some fresh air while I watched the storm roll in."

"You idiot… you're unconscious for almost three days and the first thing yout think to do is to go out and stand in a storm?" Chara walked closer to him, stopping a few feet away. "You had us all worried."

"I get that a lot." Zach smiled at her as he settled down on the ground, giving his legs some much needed rest. "How's your wing?" He gestured at the wind at Cahra's side.

Chara glanced at it over her shoulder, bandages were wrapped around here wing but it wasn't held to her side, leaving her with the ability to stretch her wings. "It could be better. Makias bandaged it again today and said it would probably be a few more days until I should fly, but he says it shouldn't cause any more problems after that."

"That's good to hear. I'm glad you're alright."

Chara smirked at him, "You're glad I'm ok? You're the one that was unconscious for so long." A long silence settled between them, both not wanting to go where the conversation was taking them. "So… can I ask what happened? I mean… The guardians tried to explain what happened to you, but you know how they can be."

"You can ask but I don't know that I will be able to explain very well." Zach sighed and let out a nervous chuckle. "from what I understand, I use elemental energy just like you would, but in a manner that helps a person's body heal their wounds, but whereas when you run out of energy you just can't use you element anymore, my body decides it's a good idea to break itself down into elemental energy. What you saw the other day was what happens if I do too much."

"I guess that explains it. Makias couldn't really figure out what was wrong. You just wouldn't wake up."

"I'm sorry for worrying you…" Zach trailed off for a moment, knowing where the conversation would end up heading and not really willing to travel down that road. "So how are you holding up, you know after…?" He could hear her breathing hitch after he asked, and she immediately turned away from him, looking back out away from the temple.

"I'm fine," Chara replied a bit too sharply, the edge of her voice clear. "I'm fine…"

"You sure don't sound like it." Zach cringed and quickly closed his mouth; it definitely wasn't the best thing he could have said.

"No I guess I don't, but am I really supposed to? Don't you get what happened here?" Chara turned around, her voice sharp as she stared at Zach again, her body tense almost as if she was going to pounce on him. "I still can't get what happened out of my head… I don't think I've been so scared in my entire life." Chara took a few steps over and stood over Zach, a fierce anger clouded with fear and confusion in her eyes. "And I can't help thinking about how many different ways it should have been me that didn't make it through the attack."

"Chara you can't think that…"

"You don't understand!" She yelled back at Zach, making him cringe. "I should have been with Comet when he was out in the woods. He asked me to go with him and I was so angry…. Angry at you…" Chara turned away from again, weather from anger or embarrassment he couldn't tell. "The guardians figured he stumbled onto the groups of apes that attacked us by accident… we were concerned when he didn't come back that night, but we just figured he had stayed out under the stars that night, some of the guardians had considered it as well so it wasn't too unusual… it wasn't until the next morning that we knew something was wrong, and that was all the warning we had until there were wyverns and apes everywhere."

Zach struggled to his feet again, taking a step closer to Chara as she walked away from him.

"I was spending some alone time in my room when I began to hear all of the commotion. By the time I made it to the central chambers of the temple, it was already swarming with apes, most of which were trying to get into the arena where the guardians and the other candidates were. A few of them broke off and came after me, pushing me back into the wings of the temple…" She broke off for a moment, and Zach took the opportunity to take a few steps closer to her.

"You know I'd always been told that apes were ruthless and brutal, but if you took your time and thought about your moves that you would be able to take them down. But when I actually had to fight them like that, I could barely think straight, every part of me was screaming to run away from them, and I had to fight myself just to stay calm. Having to fight them like that… there was no way I should have lived through it…" letting out a grunt, Chara dug her talons into the stone beneath her, tearing large gouges in the surface. "Do you know what it's like? I feel so worthless, if I had been left there by myself…"

Zach placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her, "Chara, none of this is your fault. You can't expect to handle everything by yourself."

"Can't I?" She snapped back at him, her head turning away from him. "I'm supposed to be a candidate to become the next fire guardian, if I can't protect myself, how can I expect to protect others? What good am I if I can't do anything?"

Zach stood next to Chara in an awkward silence, not knowing how he could comfort the distraught dragoness. The wind was beginning to kick up around them, ruffling his wings and forcing him to press them to his sides. He desperately wanted to say something, anything that would calm her, but he was not sure that anything he could say would convince her.

"Chara, no one blames you for any of this. What you did by yourself was nothing short of amazing, I couldn't have done half as well as what you did…"

"I couldn't protect him! When it came down to it and someone else was in danger I couldn't do anything. All I could do was sit in a corner and _watch_ as he took blow after blow protecting _me_!" Chara turned to look at him angrily before whipping her head away in frustration, putting some distance between her and the white dragon. "I just sat there like some weak hatchling, unable to so much as spit a fireball in the right direction."

"Chara this isn't your fault…"

"You don't get it!" Chara turned to face him, tears starting to brim in her eyes, "Do you know what the last thing he said to me was? Do you know why he really died? He didn't have to come back. He could have made it to safety in the arena like everyone else, but instead he came back for me. And do you know what he said?"

Chara took a moment and shook her head, her jaw moving in an attempt to speak. "… He said… he said 'I swear I won't let them hurt you again.'" She broke down as she spoke, the last few days of anguish and fear finally catching up with her. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to blink them away, her breathing hitching as she sobbed. "He put my wellbeing in front of his own, and all of it because I couldn't do enough myself."

"Chara, you can't do this do yourself…" Zach draped his wing over Chara's back, but she simply shrugged out from underneath it, continuing to put distance between herself and Zach.

"If I had helped him just a little bit more, maybe he wouldn't have gotten so hurt; maybe you could have saved him, maybe…."

"Maybe he wouldn't have died?" Zach finished for her when her voice caught.

"_Yes!"_ She screamed at him, her anger no longer hiding behind her restraint. Lashing out, she struck against his chest with her talons. "He wouldn't be gone. He would still be here, he would be able to go back to his mother and brother that he talked about so much. He wouldn't be _dead_!_"_

Zach winced as she finished, her last hit breaking deeply though his scales; raking long streaks of red across his blue chest scales and knocking him back a step. Hissing in pain, Zach stared back at her, his own anger raising a little as drops of blood ran down his chest. "So what about you then? What if he hadn't come back? Would you have just rolled over and died? Have you even given some thought to that? Ashe was not the only one who had a family to go back to."

Chara simply stared at him, a deep anger burning behind her eyes while her lips curled up into the beginnings of a snarl.

"What then? Did you even stop to think about that… what that would have done to your brother or your parents? Ashe obviously thought you were worth saving, so don't go spitting on his grave by wallowing in your self righteous pity." Zach snarled back, his tail beginning to lash behind him.

"He was my friend!" Chara snarled and flashed her teeth, taking a few threatening steps toward Zach.

"And that's why he came back. Not because he thought you were too weak to defend yourself, not because he wanted to throw his life away, but because he wanted to protect his friend. He wanted to protect you." Zach stood to his full height, his head above Chara's as he went nose to nose with the smaller dragoness. "He was my friend too, and it hurts that he died. Don't you think I've thought about what I could have done differently? It was my fault Spyro, Cynder, and I were away from the temple when the attack occurred. You think I haven't thought about what would have happened if we were still here? If I hadn't dragged Spyro and Cynder with me? If we had flown just a little bit faster on the way back?" Zach took a deep breath, releasing the tension in his body that had begun to scrape his talons against the ground. "But all that blaming myself has done is hurt my friends who have tried to help me. Don't make the same mistake." He half threatened and half pleaded as his eyes softened. "Don't keep doing this to yourself Chara." Zach slowly spread his wings around her, pulling her close to his body.

Chara broke away from him, tears running down her face again. "I'm not doing anything to myself that I don't already deserve."

Zach moved after her, but stumbled as he tried to move again, his legs not willing to support his weight anymore. Looking over at the red dragoness he could see she had moved to edge of the platform, looking far off into the storm again. "Stop this Chara, this isn't your fault."

"I… I can't do this right now Zach…" Chara backed away from him on the platform, her back feet reaching the ledge of the balcony. "I need some time alone…." Zach stood shocked as she unfurled her wings, allowing them to billow out in the wind. "I know you can't follow me in the state you're in, so please, don't try…"

Zach's eyes widened as he realized what she was about to do. "Chara you can't. Your wings are in no condition to fly. They'll get ripped apart in this wind."

"I'll be fine…" Chara turned and placed her front legs onto the edge of the balcony, the wind whipping the tears away from her face. "Please don't follow me…"

"Chara, Stop!" Zach took a few steps after the red dragoness but could only watch helplessly as she dove out into the wind, her wings beating strongly to keep her in the air.

"Damn it Chara." Zach yelled after her, watching helplessly as she pushed into the wind. Even from where he was standing, he could see the bandages around her wings beginning to unravel, it would only be a few moments until the bandages around her injured wing unraveled completely and it was fully exposed to the force of the wind as she attempted to fly; something he was sure they couldn't handle. "Chara come back, your wing can't take that." Zach almost screamed as his voice was either ignored or lost into the wind. With nothing else to think of, he turned around and yelled back into the temple "Makias, Terrador, a little help here!"

Turning back, Zach spotted Chara gain, flying high over the temple in an attempt to get out of the lower cross winds. Flying that high, if her wing ripped open, it wouldn't be a pleasant fall regardless of where she landed.

"Spyro, Cynder, Anybody!" Zach screamed back into the temple, watching helplessly as Chara began to flounder in the strong winds. He waited a few agonizing moments, praying desperately that someone had heard him and was close to the balcony. Turning around again, Zach watched in fear as Chara began to falter above him, the bandages around her wing finally unraveling from her wing just as her cries of pain reached him.

Zach cursed again, praying that she would turn around and come back down to the balcony. He relaxed when he noticed her turn back toward the temple, but it lasted only a moment. His heart began to shove its way up his throat as he saw her fall out of the sky, one of her wings trailing behind her like scraps of a ribbon. She was still well above him, but it would only be moments before she hit the ground. Glancing over his shoulder, Zach only had a moment to notice that no one had come to his aid before he made his decision.

"Damn it Chara!" Stumbling the last few steps out to the edge of the balcony, Zach flung himself out into the air, paying desperately that his wings would do a better job at supporting two of them than his legs had done at supporting one. Flipping onto his back, Zach only had a moment before Chara crashed hard into his chest, knocking the air out of him and sending them both spiraling out of control. Scrambling wildly, Zach managed to wrap his arms awkwardly around her midsection while catching her tail with his own. Attempting to right himself in the air, Zach grunted as he felt Chara's talons latch onto him near the base of his wings, her arms wrapped around him as she clung to her only chance of safety.

Flaring his wings, Zach could feel their combined weigh pulling though his shoulders as his membranes caught the air beneath them. He knew it wouldn't be enough. If he had been at full strength the added weight wouldn't be a problem, but with as tired as he was, he doubted he could have glided down to the ground safely himself. Pumping his wings a few times, he tried to slow himself down as much as he could before rolling onto his back and wrapping his wings around Chara.

Hitting the ground hard, Zach flipped and rolled over Chara as they tumbled down a steep incline. He couldn't tell if the crunch he heard was something beneath him or something in his back. Rolling down the hill, Zach was only stopped when he slammed up against a large tree, letting out a large grunt as his lungs were robbed of their air again and Chara's talons dug deeper into his back. As his vision flashed, Zach was keenly away of Chara pushing against him, her limbs frantically trying to find purchase.

"I told you not to follow me…" Chara sobbed as she scrambled wildly against him, her feet kicking his stomach and her talons scratching his chest against as she tried to worm out of his grip.

"And I told you not to fly out in this storm." Zach kept his voice as calm as he could, holding the scrambling dragoness as tightly as he could to his chest. "Please stop fighting me; you're only going to make your wing worse."

"You don't understand…" Chara thrashed around wildly, a few of her kicks connecting well into Zach's stomach and knocking the wind out of him, but still he held on. "You don't understand…" this time it was quieter and he could hear her voice cracking.

"Please…. Please stop fighting Chara..." Looking at her, he could see the reflection of himself from earlier, the hurt and the guilt, only with so much more emotion. As time passed Chara's kicks weakened to her simply pushing away from him as much as she could, but after a while even that faded and Chara pushed her head against Zach's chest as she cried.

"Chara, we need to get your wing set again." Zach gently pulled on Chara's shoulder, the red dragoness complying and rolling to her opposite side while slowly stretching out her damaged wing. Zach cringed as he saw the damage, it was much worse than it had been a few days earlier, the membrane shredded to pieces all the way up to the base of her wing and blood running down what pieces were still attached in rivulets. Stretching out his own larger wing to its full span, Zach placed it on the ground and gently guiding Chara's wounded wing down on top of it; his wing serving to keep hers out of the dirt while providing a mold to piece together her wing. "You really shouldn't have done that…"

Chara remained quiet as Zach used his talon to straighten out and set the remaining strips of Chara's wings, her only response an occasional hiss of pain. It didn't look good, but the more he could do for her wing now, the less it would cause complications in the future. After doing what he could with Chara's wing, Zach set his head down on the ground, knowing there was nothing more they could do until someone came down to find them. Hopefully the large tree they had crashed into would provide some king of protection from the oncoming storm. Zach was knocked out of his thoughts when Chara moved her head up underneath his, her body pressing into him the slightest bit

"I'm sorry…" Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper as she talked.

Zach hummed and pressed the slightest bit into her. "Me too…"


End file.
